PwC Luxembourg inks partnership with PwC Portugal for Porto delivery centre

PwC’s member firms in Luxembourg and Portugal have inked a strategic partnership, which will see the companies establish a delivery centre in Porto.

The new entity, named PwC Services Portugal, will see the two firms establish a new office in Matosinhos (in the Porto district) which will focus solely on serving financial services clients in Luxembourg. The office will formally open next week with 230 staff, and is planned to grow to 700 people by 2027.

“The employees in Portugal are fully integrated into PwC Luxembourg’s operations and work as an extension of our local teams, ensuring scalability and consistency in service delivery,” said Olivier Carré, Deputy Managing Partner of PwC in Luxembourg.

PwC’s business in Luxembourg is the largest of the Big Four accounting and audit firms in the Grand Duchy, with around 3,400 employees. The firm works for most of the top financial institutions in the country.

While the move has sparked some concerns about potential job cuts in Luxembourg, Carré emphasized that the rationale behind the overseas delivery hub is not cost-cutting. “This model provides a sustainable solution for talent acquisition while also serving as an incubator for skilled professionals for Luxembourg. Our hope is that they will become our future seniors and managers and that some of them will join us in Luxembourg through local mobility programmes, so we looked not only at our short-term staffing needs but also those for the longer term.”

Carré added that the firm restricted its location search to within the European Union, for regulatory and compliance reasons – as well as a more natural fit with the cultural demands of customers.

Portugal was chosen because of its longstanding and close cultural ties with Luxembourg, he said, and for the good connection between the two countries – Portugal is notably the #1 outbound destination for flights from Luxembourg’s airport. Porto was chosen over Lisbon meanwhile because of its good supply of skilled people and proximity to well-known universities, noting that Lisbon’s business environment is more saturated already.