Lusíadas Saúde Lifts Revenue to €474 Million and Earmarks €165 Million for New Hospitals, Including One in Faro

One of Portugal's largest private healthcare groups is spending heavily to grow, and the Algarve is a centrepiece of the plan. Lusíadas Saúde reported revenue of €474 million for 2025, up 14% on the previous year, and set out an investment programme of €165 million through the end of the decade — including a brand-new €60 million hospital in Faro that is expected to create around 500 jobs.

The numbers describe a company in rapid expansion. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA, a common gauge of operating profit) edged up to €52 million from €50.7 million, though margins slipped as the cost of opening new units bit into profitability. The workforce grew 12% in a single year, from 8,399 to 9,402 employees. Controlled since 2022 by the French group Vivalto Santé, Lusíadas now runs 16 health units and 31 dental clinics — a dramatic leap from the six hospitals it operated just four years ago.

A building spree

Lusíadas opened four hospitals in 2025 alone — in Vilamoura, Paços de Ferreira, Maia and Campera — and is preparing a further unit, Hospital Lusíadas Beloura near Sintra, for the final quarter of 2026. The €165 million capital plan is spread across the following years, front-loaded with roughly €51 million in 2027 before tapering to about €27 million a year through the early 2030s. The Faro hospital, due to open in late 2027 or early 2028, is the flagship: a €60 million bet on the Algarve, a region whose fast-growing, ageing and heavily international population has long strained the public system.

Chief executive Vasco Antunes Pereira cast 2026 as "a consolidation year," predicting "strong growth in profitability" as the newly opened hospitals fill up and reach operating efficiency. In plain terms, the group has spent big to build capacity and now needs those beds and clinics to pay their way.

Private muscle, public questions

The expansion arrives at a delicate moment for Portuguese healthcare. The Serviço Nacional de Saúde (National Health Service, or SNS) is under acute pressure, with emergency departments straining and the state overhauling how it buys care from private and charity providers from 1 August. At the same time, Portugal's largest private operator has signalled it wants to run public hospitals under the right terms — a sign that private groups increasingly see the public system as a business opportunity as much as a competitor. The backdrop is a health bill that keeps climbing: Portugal spent €31.9 billion on health in 2025, faster than the economy grew.

What this means for residents and expats

• More private capacity in the Algarve: A new Faro hospital by 2027-28 should ease access for the region's large expat and retiree community, many of whom rely on private insurance.
• Jobs on the way: Around 500 posts in Faro, plus continued national hiring, in a sector chronically short of doctors and nurses.
• Insurance still matters: Private hospitals mean choice and shorter waits, but usually require health insurance or out-of-pocket payment — budget accordingly.
• A two-track system: As private groups expand while the SNS strains, where you live and how you are covered increasingly shapes the care you can get quickly.

For a country debating the balance between public and private medicine, Lusíadas's building spree is a concrete data point: private capital is betting that demand for healthcare in Portugal — and especially in the sun-belt south — will only keep rising.