On 23rd February 2023, one of the most prestigious award ceremonies in the world of Hungarian financial and capital markets, the Best of BSE, took place. The Stock Exchange Advisory Board of the Budapest Stock Exchange awarded the nominees in 24 categories for their performance during the previous year.

Since the launch of the BSE Xtend market, NAVIGATOR’s advisory team has been actively involved in the listing of 9 of the 22 companies ever listed on Xtend. Out of the record number of 12 listings in 2022, NAVIGATOR colleagues acted as Nominated Advisors for 4 transactions. In recognition of these efforts, the Budapest Stock Exchange awarded NAVIGATOR with the “Nominated Advisor of the Year on the BSE Xtend Market” award!

In the first half of 2022, NAVIGATOR Investments acquired Instrum Ltd., based in Tököl, Hungary. The company manufactures metal and plastic machine parts by CNC turning, and machining of steel, stainless steel, aluminium, red brass, brass and industrial plastic (POM, PEEK) bar stock. Primary industries served include rail, automotive, machinery and healthcare. Instrum’s customers are internationally renowned multinational companies, such as the German Knorr-Bremse Group, a manufacturer of braking equipment for the rail and commercial vehicle industries. In the framework of the transaction, 24 new colleagues joined the NAVIGATOR team.

On 27th September 2022, trading with NAVIGATOR shares started on the BSE Xtend market! As part of the ceremonial ringing of the BSE bell, 340,100 dematerialised NAVIGATOR shares with a nominal value of HUF 1,000 were admitted to trading on Xtend.

One of the main milestones on the road to becoming listed was the private placement at the end of the first half of the year, where, in a less-than-ideal market environment, more than HUF 300 million was subscribed for shares by our investors! After that, on 9th August 2022, NAVIGATOR’s change of form was registered – NAVIGATOR Investments Plc., a new chapter in our story!

In 2021, NAVIGATOR successfully integrated Trifolium International Ltd. into the company group. Total sales will reach HUF 1.7 billion and EBITDA is expected to reach HUF 200 million. With this achievement, the Group successfully managed the crisis situation faced by Trifolium prior to the takeover caused by the pandemic resulting in the complete shutdown of the company’s activities on the foreign and domestic markets.

NAVIGATOR sold its stake in Aperus Pharma Plc.

The Xtend consulting & advisor team of NAVIGATOR successfully completed the market launch of Épduferr Plc. at the BSE.

After 30 years, the founding owners of Trifolium Hungary Ltd. decided to sell their entire stake in the company as a solution to their generational change problems. As a result, in March 2020, Trifolium Ltd. became fully owned by the NAVIGATOR Group.

Random and NAVIGATOR are key players in the Budapest Stock Exchange Xtend program. It took less than a year for the consortium of Random Capital and NAVIGATOR Investments to be able to announce that the consortium in some way is involved in almost all of the successful Xtend launches and those underway at BSE.

Nominated Adviser (NomAd) is a new advisory status established by the Budapest Stock Exchange. Approved companies have the exclusive right to take companies to the new SME market launched by the BSE – Xtend. The concept itself is not new, the London Stock Exchange has been operating its own NomAd system for many years. NAVIGATOR participates in the program as an exclusive partner of Random Capital.

NAVIGATOR – an organizer and manager of private equity investments, has acquired a minority stake in Aperus Pharma Plc., which is active in the development of drugs for Alzheimer’s disease. The new company was established by the owners together with the Szeged-based biotechnology company Avidin with the purpose of funding and financing the research and development project.

NAVIGATOR has launched a new investment model called Generational Change. The group helps the owners of companies that face inheritance problems in the company’s future management to find a solution. In many cases, family members are unwilling or unable to deal with carrying forward the founder’s life-time achievement representing a commercial challenge complicated further with the owner’s emotional attachment to the company. NAVIGATOR’s customers are primarily production companies with high added value, positive cash flow and significant production assets.

A year of great divestments. NAVIGATOR’s management broke away from the crisis management business and sold its portfolio companies. The group gradually sold its stake in both Synergon and an investment fund during 2014. After saving a great many of ventures at the very last minute by NAVIGATOR’s management and the troubled company owners (sometimes paying a heavy price during the process) the company decided not to deal any more with companies undergoing a crisis. It is an unrewarding task!

In 2013, NAVIGATOR as financial investor acquired a minority stake in a domestic fund management company, as well as in a financial fund. Following the expansion of the portfolio, NAVIGATOR exited both the financial fund and the fund management company in 2014.

At that time the shares of the leading Hungarian solutions provider company operating on a regional level were listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange. In the same year, NAVIGATOR became the largest shareholder in the company holding a stake of 15.89%. Following the successful reorganization, the group’s sales exceeded $ 70 million and the share price increased from HUF 140 to around HUF 450.

Following the change of name of NAVIGATOR Invest Ltd. and its transformation into Plc., NAVIGATOR dealt with the reorganization and improvement of the market position of small and medium-sized enterprises struggling with financial and organizational problems. In August 2011, NAVIGATOR entered into an agreement with the Synergon Group, under which Zoltán Jutasi became Synergon’s CEO.

At the end of 2007, just before the 2008 global economic crisis, Zoltán Jutasi acquired an interest in a Hungarian-owned construction group. During the transaction, the new management led by Jutasi carried out a total, group-level reorganization via establishing of a holding structure.

In 2005, the Euroweb Group made an offer to acquire NAVIGATOR’s IT portfolio; the offer was accepted by both Wallis and Zoltán Jutasi, and the owners sold the entire package of shares. Following the transaction, the principal activity of NAVIGATOR was shifted to corporate transactions leading to the establishment of NAVIGATOR Invest Ltd.

NAVIGATOR acquired AM-IT Plc., a subsidiary of Antenna Hungária, and merged with Wallitrade’s IT business arm. Following the successful transaction, NAVIGATOR Informatika Plc. was established by merging three IT companies belonging to the group. By 2005, the company had a turnover exceeding than HUF 2 billion in the domestic market, making it one of the leading outsourcing companies in Hungary.