The New Year starts with the usual best wishes of peace, health and love for everyone, and prosperity for the most materialist we should add. Health is particularly relevant in this year of uncertainty, but of hope.

At CV&A, now with / AMO – the network of media relations companies we joined at the beginning of the year 21 – we remain committed to lead the market, providing value-added services and keeping a strong focus on the geographies where we have been operating for more than ten years. By the way, CV&A celebrates its 18th birthday this year and, like Prémio, is fully aware of the fact that coming of age brings more responsibility with it.

Prémio, like the company’s business, is increasingly international. It continues to privilege the good work we have been doing, reporting the activities of CV&A Customers, the opinion of various political circles, renowned journalists and businessmen / managers from different parts of the world.

We are days away from the inauguration of Joe Biden as President of the United States of North America and the presidential election in Portugal. And if you think these issues are not enough this magazine has a great deal of additional information for you. The Portuguese Presidency of the European Union and the pandemic that plagues us, the articles focusing on Africa – a continent where CV&A is increasingly established and where we work with the leading institutions and the most relevant companies – on education and science, on Asia and the Middle East, among others, are the main reason behind Prémio magazine’s focus, that is, to convey, as far as possible, the global feeling as to the current and future paths in politics, business and society.

The year 2021 is particularly challenging, considering that will be the year when the impact of the pandemic will be most felt. The small and medium-sized economy will continue to survive subsidized, which is to say that little exists on its own. On the other hand, the moratoriums will be extended, and the banking sector shall be faced with more difficulties – hence mergers and acquisitions along with the eventual disappearance of some of the few banks that still have their decision-making centres in Portugal are due to appear on the horizon. The arrival of European money is postponed to the second half due to the need for national parliaments to approve the “European budget”, but there is also a positive side to this story, which is the appearance of vaccines. The business environment may improve, but once again, the differences will only be felt at the end of the semester.

At CV&A we believe in the future. And we are not prone to complain when we don’t win the lottery and neither do we feel jealous when our neighbour wins it. We do everything to win it every month. As someone would say, in order to win it you need to buy it, which is to say that in order to earn things we need to work, a lot and well!

Leading is never easy. But the goal is to do better in 2021 than in 2020. And we can state here that, thanks to our workers and the trust of our Clients, in 2020 CV&A was able to increase its turnover, EBITDA and earnings before tax, compared to 2019.

And what to expect in 2021? It will be a year of opportunities, both for new businesses and for those who will know how to rise from the ashes. Now more than ever, preparing business for the long term, instead of thinking only about tomorrow, may help us win the lottery. Because luck takes a lot of work.