The new Securities Code reduces the capital float requirement from 25 to ten percent, a change approved in Lisbon by the Government and regulated by the Securities Market Commission. This measure simplifies the admission of shares for trading on the Portuguese market, with the aim of unlocking small and medium-sized enterprises' access to institutional liquidity and aligning the Lisbon exchange with European Union directives. The lowering of the so-called free float threshold represents an immediate relief for company founders, safeguards controlling shareholder positions, and invites family-oriented structures to explore alternative financing channels to commercial banking.
In addition to the traditional regulated market managed by Euronext Lisbon, the CMVM now has direct authority to register operational segments aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises in the expansion phase, through multilateral trading systems with more manageable admission costs and reduced bureaucratic requirements for the initial prospectus. The reform also deepens the public takeover regime, establishing that when an investor reaches 90 percent of voting rights and share capital, it is feasible to activate mandatory acquisition mechanisms over the remaining shares.
The framework for investment recommendations receives flexibility criteria in the remuneration of services provided, but financial intermediaries remain obligated to formally detail to their clients the source and amount of each payment received. The legislation also incorporates sponsor research by issuers, enabling listed companies to fund independent analyses of their own asset performance, requiring unambiguous labeling in documents.
The procedural rules eliminate the obligation to renew trading suspension orders every ten calendar days, maintaining only the exact interval indispensable to avert abnormal liquidity disruptions. In the medium term, the sector is preparing for adherence to the European Single Access Point, a community platform that will bring together accounting data and sustainability factors, with transitional stages planned for 2028 and 2030.
