the sustained growth in construction over decades has enabled the group to progressively develop other activity sectors due to the business opportunities it has encountered and fostered since the 1970s, such as concessions and services (since 1984), real estate (since 1973), hospitality (since 1992), distribution (since 1996), energy (since 1996) and automotive (since 1991). although in 2016 it still operated in the energy sector – where it had operated since 1996 – teixeira duarte divested its stake in the entity through which it maintained its activity in this sector in the first quarter of 2017.