Founded: 2003
Headquarter: Budapest, Hungary
Employees: Over 8,000
2023 Revenues: €5.1 BN (CHF 12.77 BN)
Stock Exchange: WIZZ.L

This low-cost airline defies its Western competitors. Unlimited flights for just €599 a year? That is the bold offer launched by Hungarian carrier Wizz Air this summer. Although its impact on revenues is believed to be "marginal" by Concorde analyst Gábor Bukta, the programme demonstrates the aggressive expansion strategy of the airline. After being founded in 2003, Wizz Air first grew fast in Eastern Europe – in particular Hungary, Poland, Romania and Ukraine – before significantly expanding its fleet and adding new destinations in Western Europe. Much of this latter growth took place during the pandemic, when its competitors were on the defensive. 

Listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2015, the carrier now serves nearly 200 destinations in 53 countries. "As an ultra low-cost airline, Wizz Air derives most of its revenues not from ticket sales but from the additional services it sells, such as extra baggage and in-flight catering," says Yi Zhong, an analyst with AlphaValue. For financial year 2023-2024, Wizz Air’s revenue surged 30.2% to almost €5.1 billion, with a net profit of €366 million. Passenger numbers also rose 21.4% to 62 million. This momentum is expected to continue. The company reported a record number of bookings in the summer of 2024, despite a period marked by reduced capacity. Wizz Air forecasts profits of between €500 million and €600 million for the next financial year.

However, the company faces a number of challenges. "The war in Ukraine has severely impacted Wizz Air’s revenue, and the airline has had to abandon several routes in Eastern Europe," Yi Zhong points out. Making matters worse, problems with the Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines on its Airbus A320neo aircraft have grounded 20% of its fleet, forcing the company to lease eight additional aircraft. Gábor Bukta estimates that this will cost around €100 million this year. Wizz Air is also facing stiff competition from Ryanair in Eastern Europe. "The two carriers are engaged in an all-out price war," Gábor Bukta says. He cites the example of Albania, where the simultaneous arrival of the two airlines in late 2023 led to 15% to 25% reductions in average ticket prices. 

Wizz Air is now looking eastward to secure future growth. "It has ordered a large fleet of A321XLRs, an aircraft capable of covering medium-haul flights," Yi Zhong says. The new fleet will operate out of the airline’s Abu Dhabi hub to serve southern and eastern Asia. In the spring of 2024, Wizz Air announced the opening of routes to India with tickets priced at less than €200. "Unlike traditional carriers, which operate these flights with double-aisle aircraft, the A321XLR is a single-aisle plane, which makes it more economical to operate," the analyst explains. Despite the company’s high debt, Gábor Bukta maintains his buy recommendation. He believes that the challenges it faces are already factored into the current share price, which he deems undervalued.

Founded: 1999
Headquarter: Poznań, Poland
Employees: 7,000
2023 Revenues: PLN 58.4 BN (CHF 12.77 BN)
Stock Exchange: ALE

Allegro, Poland’s e-commerce leader, has managed to hold its own against American giants. In the 2000s, Allegro pulled off a show of strength in Poland by outperforming eBay, the US competitor that had inspired it. The company managed to rally the country’s network of SMEs to sell their goods on its marketplace. On the back of this success, Allegro grew dramatically, to the point that in 2020, amid the pandemic, the firm went public on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The stock rapidly took off to top the Polish WIG30 index, and the unicorn’s valuation surged from $11 billion to $19 billion in a single day.

In 2021, a new challenge arose with the arrival of another US giant, Amazon, on the Polish market. After the announcement, Allegro’s shares dipped temporarily. Yet, three years on, the company is holding up well. Its market share in Poland remains stable at around 45%, according to Morningstar analyst Sean Dunlop. In late September, he wrote, "We continue to view Allegro’s current price as an attractive entry point for investors seeking high-quality exposure to e-commerce." In addition to its online market-place, Allegro is diversifying into related sectors: advertising, delivery and online payments, thus bolstering its ecosystem. In 2022, the firm extended its influence outside Poland with the acquisitions of Slovakian logistics operator WeDo and Czech online retailer Mall Group. With these acquisition, Allegro extended its presence in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia, increasing its reach by 39.7% to 19.6 million active buyers in 2023.

Founded: 1991
Headquarter: Gdańsk, Poland
Employees: 43,000
2023 Revenues: PLN 17.4 BN (CHF 3.8 BN)
Stock Exchange: LPP

The group owns several clothing brands, including the highly trendy Sinsay, and already operates in almost 30 countries. A ruffled floral dress for €15, a pair of black ankle boots for €30 or a navy blue striped blazer for €18. The cuts are simple, the style on trend, but not overstated. In Eastern Europe, the brand Sinsay enjoys a reputation comparable to that of H&M or Zara. It belongs to LPP, a group founded in Gdańsk in 1991. In the late 1990s, LPP began developing its own brands, such as Reserved and Cropp, and opened stores under these banners. In 2008, the group added House and Mohito to its portfolio by buying out a competitor. Sinsay rounded out the offering in 2013.

Today, LPP operates 2,275 stores in 27 countries as well as e-commerce platforms, giving it access to some 40 markets. For its financial year to end-January, the group posted 9.3% growth, for revenue of 17.4 billion złotys (3.8 billion Swiss francs). "Most of this growth came from the Sinsay brand, which targets a young audience with low-priced products," says Janusz Pieta, an analyst at mBank. Inspired by the model of fast-fashion pioneers such as Zara, "Sinsay watches market trends and quickly transforms them into affordable products," says Sylwia Jaskiewicz, an analyst at DM BOŚ. LPP plans to substantially increase its number of stores over the next few years, which Janusz Pieta labels an "aggressive expansion strategy". By 2026, the group hopes to operate 4,755 outlets, of which 3,248 will come under Sinsay. 

However, to meet those targets, LPP will have to overcome a significant obstacle. In early 2024, the US group Hindenburg Research published a report accusing LPP of continuing to operate secretly in Russia, despite the company’s announced withdrawal from the country when the war broke out in Ukraine. In June 2022, LPP said it had sold its Russian division, which accounted for a quarter of its sales, to a Dubai-based entity called Far East Services, presented as a Chinese consortium, for about $382 million. Hindenburg alleges that this entity is merely a shell, created the day before the announcement. The report also claims that former LPP stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg continue to sell its products, shipping them via Kazakhstan.

LPP’s share price plummeted 36% upon release of the report. "The situation has caused it to lose credibility with investors," Sylwia Jaskiewicz says. Eager to restore its image, the Polish firm is now focusing on other markets, particularly in Central and Southern Europe, setting Romania, Greece and Italy in its sights. Despite these challenges, Sylwia Jaskiewicz believes the company’s fundamentals remain healthy and maintains a buy recommendation. She also highlights the substantial savings achieved in the e-commerce segment.

Founded: 1990
Headquarter: Prague, Czech Republic
Employees: 7,563
2023 Revenues: CZK 36.2 BN (CHF 1.34 BN)
Stock Exchange: KONN

The renowned financial institution is fine-tuning its digital offering to strengthen its position on the local market. The third-largest bank in the Czech Republic, Komerční Banka has built a solid reputation as a specialist in retail banking and financial services for small businesses. Sixty percent owned by Société Générale, it has 1.7 million customers and customer deposits of over CZK 1 trillion. In 2020, the bank adopted an ambitious strategy to reduce the number of branches and transition to digital services by 2025.

This transformation aims not only to reduce costs, but also to increase revenue by selling more financial products, especially via its mobile app. These instruments are already popular among Czechs who want to maximise returns on their savings amid today’s low interest rates. In 2023, the volume of assets invested by Komerční Banka in mutual funds, pension funds and life insurance rose 16%. Deposits grew by 9.7% and loans by 5.5%. Most analysts have issued a buy recommendation, considering the bank’s fundamentals to be strong. The total capital ratio, which measures a bank’s reserves built up to guard against losses, reached 18.8%, well above the 8% legally required in the Czech Republic. Another plus for shareholders is the dividend of 82.66 Czech koruna per share, with an average yield of 11.4% over the last five years (between 5.97% and 15.3%).

Founded: 2008
Headquarter: Budapest, Hungary
Employees: 454
2023 Revenues: HUF 96 BN (CHF 225 M)
Stock Exchange: ALTEO

Hungary’s pioneer of green solutions has solid foundations for further growth. The flagship of Hungary’s energy sector, Alteo has made a name for itself in the energy transition field. The company has a diversified portfolio of assets, including solar and wind plants, as well as hydroelectric and biogas facilities. In 2023, it set up a virtual power plant integrating almost exclusively renewable sources – a first in Hungary. This innovation enables centralised and optimised coordination of several green energy production units, thereby enhancing grid flexibility. At the same time, Alteo is expanding its activities, notably through subsidiaries specialising in waste management and the supply of charging equipment for electric vehicles.

Despite the fall in energy prices in 2023, the Hungarian company managed to hold its own. In the first half of 2024, its consolidated EBITDA was down by 25% and its net profit by 50% compared with the first half of 2023, but this was due to an extraordinary 2022. At the beginning of September 2024, the company still had a liquidity cushion of 10.6 billion forints after the June dividend payments, allowing it to comfortably cover its short-term obligations. For now, Alteo remains a small-scale player still highly exposed to the Hungarian market, but with green energy gaining ground in the European energy mix, the company is well positioned to capture a share of this growth, thanks in particular to its leadership in integrated energy solutions. A stock to watch.

Founded: 1990
Headquarter: Krakow, Poland
Employees: 5,000
2023 Revenues: PLN 8,843.7 M (CHF 1.94 BN) 
Stock Exchange: INPST

Through its network of automated lockers and service points, the company has built itself into a leading parcel delivery player in Europe. The explosive growth of online retail has brought with it a tough challenge for delivery companies: "last mile" logistics. Active in this sector for 25 years, InPost has been innovative in its positioning. Initially specialising in leaflet distribution, the company evolved towards standard deliveries before introducing a major innovation in 2009: self-service lockers, open 24/7, where users could send and receive parcels. These first lockers propelled the company to success. By 2020, InPost had more than 10,000 lockers across Poland.

Taking advantage of the boom in online retail during the pandemic, InPost went public in January 2021, a few months after another Polish giant Allegro, raising €2.8 billion. That same year, the acquisition of Mondial Relay (a former 3 Suisses subsidiary) gave it a foothold in France, Benelux and the Iberian Peninsula. Expansion continued with new operations in Italy and the UK. Today, InPost manages some 35,500 automated lockers and over 30,500 collection points in nine countries, making it one of Europe’s most extensive networks. This international strategy is paying off. In its Q2 2024 report, published in September, InPost exceeded expectations with parcel volume of more than 264.4 million, representing growth of 20% in Poland and 29% in other markets. Most analysts recommend buying shares.

Founded: 1990
Headquarter: Budapest, Hungary
Employees: 8,000
2023 Revenues: HUF 594.51 BN (CHF 1.4 BN) 
Stock Exchange: BUD:4IG

In just a few years, the group has become a key player in the region. 4iG has grown, within the space of a few years, from a medium sized Hungarian company to a diversified group with 8,000 employees. The transformation began in 2017, when the company was purchased by Lőrinc Mészáros, Hungary’s richest man and a close ally of President Viktor Orbán, before continuing under the leadership of Gellért Jásza, the current CEO. Between 2018 and 2024, the company’s net revenue increased almost 50-fold, reaching 328.4 billion forints (approximately 783 million Swiss francs) in the first half of 2024. At the same time, the share price on the Budapest Stock Exchange increased tenfold, to 770 forints (1.84 Swiss francs).

Today, 4iG is an established leader in the Hungarian telecommunications market, mainly through strategic acquisitions such as Vodafone Hungary, the country’s second-largest mobile provider, along with the local subsidiary of Romanian internet provider Digi and Invitec, a company specialising in data centres, fibre optics and IT solutions. Internationally, 4iG expanded its presence in Albania and Montenegro with the acquisition of ONE. The group has also diversified, forging a partnership with German conglomerate Rheinmetall in the defence industry and acquiring a stake in Israeli satellite company Spacecom. According to Nora Nagy, an analyst with Erste Group, its restructuring into three distinct entities – telecommunications, infrastructure and information technology – and consolidation of space and defence operations into an independent entity are logical steps that should enable 4iG to create more value for its shareholders.

Founded: 2005
Headquarter: New York, USA
Employees: 4,000
2023 Revenues: $1.31 BN
Stock Exchange: PATH

Founded in Bucharest, UiPath offers solutions used by companies around the world. Serving companies of all sizes and in all sectors, from multinationals to local businesses, including banks, private hospitals and railway operators, UiPath has become a leader in robotic process automation (RPA). UiPath’s platform integrates easily with existing enterprise software, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems and enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages, to automate repetitive tasks that used to be performed manually by employees. This includes both front-office and back-office operations that improve the efficiency of an organisation.

With the recent integration of artificial intelligence technologies, UiPath users continue to improve their productivity. "Advances in AI over the past two years have significantly enhanced the performance of the UiPath platform," says Scott Berg, an analyst at Needham & Company. In his view, few companies can match UiPath. It now holds over 35% of the global RPA market, which the consulting firm Gartner estimated to be worth $3.2 billion in 2023. This puts the company ahead of well-known competitors such as Automation Anywhere (9.7%), Blue Prism (8.7%) and even Microsoft (3.3%). The fact that this company, founded in Bucharest in 2005, has managed to outperform such tech giants is remarkable. Its first automation product, launched in 2013, quickly gained ground. In 2021, when it went public in New York, UiPath raised $1.34 billion, and its valuation shot up to $35.8 billion.

As for its investment outlook, Scott Berg issued a "hold" recommendation, pointing to the company’s strong performance while expecting even stronger earnings. "I’d like to see one or two quarters of continuous growth before I recommend buying shares,” he says. The company faces two major challenges: the transition to cloud-based services and the restructuring of its marketing model under the leadership of co-founder and CEO Daniel Dines, who has returned to oversee the transformation. The effects of these changes should be visible in the coming months. For the second quarter of its 2025 financial year, UiPath reported revenue of $316 million, up 10% on the previous year.

Founded: 1901
Headquarter: Budapest, Hungary
Employees: 11,600
2023 Revenues: HUF 805.158 BN (CHF 1.9 BN)
Stock Exchange: RICHTER

This Hungarian company shines in a number of fields, primarily thanks to its massive investment in R&D. Founded in 1901 by Hungarian chemical pioneer Gedeon Richter, the company now operates in some 50 countries, from Latin America to Australia, and from Western Europe to China. Its success stems from its refusal to limit itself to the production of generics in the post-Communist era. The company invested heavily in R&D, building Central Europe’s first R&D centre, and made acquisitions in various Western countries to produce original medicines.

Today Gedeon Richter employs 11,600 people, and women’s healthcare is one of its pillars. This sector generates one-third of its pharmaceutical sales, amounting to 256 billion forints in 2023, about 700 million Swiss francs (up 12% from 2022). Gedeon Richter has been manufacturing contraceptive pills since 1966 and recently acquired assets from the Belgian company Mithra, which is active in a range of contraceptive methods. But its portfolio extends beyond birth control to include treatments for infertility, endometriosis and cervical cancer.

The central nervous system is another key area of expertise for the group. Its proprietary antipsychotic prescribed for schizophrenia, a blockbuster in the United States, drove growth in the segment to 41% between 2022 and 2023 to 206 billion forints (around 560 million Swiss francs). In addition to cardio-vascular and over-the-counter products, Gedeon Richter focuses on biosimilars, another area that sets the company apart. It has recently opened a manufacturing site in Germany within its subsidiary Helm to triple its biosimilar production capacity. Most analysts recommend buying shares.

Founded: 1933
Headquarter: Sofia, Bulgaria
Employees: 1,750
2023 Revenues: BGN 1.874 BN (CHF 887.3 M)
Stock Exchange: SFA

Sopharma continues to expand its customer base thanks to an integrated manufacturing and distribution strategy. "Sopharma’s main strength lies in its complete vertical integration in Bulgaria, from production to drug distribution to sales", says Tatiana Puncheva-Vassileva, an analyst at Elana Trading. In the space of just 20 years, it has transformed from a stateowned producer of generic drugs to an integrated company listed on the Sofia Stock Exchange. Today, it is the country’s second-largest market capitalisation, with a valuation of over 1 billion Bulgarian leva (BGN), around 500 million Swiss francs. In both drug manufacturing and R&D, Sopharma concentrates its efforts on generics: of the 200 products in its catalogue, only 15 are original drugs and 12 are herbal medicines. The bulk of production takes place in Bulgaria, through nine factories, with a small proportion produced in Ukraine. The group will also soon be manufacturing in Serbia, where it is in the process of acquiring pharmaceuticals manufacturer Pharmanova.

The export-focused company generates around 60% of its revenue in former Soviet Union states, namely Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. On the domestic market, Sopharma has a 7% share of the pharmaceuticals market by volume and 2% by value. Sopharma’s distribution division is also one of the group’s pillars, positioned third on the Bulgarian market. Most of its sales are made via the Sopharmacy pharmacy chain, which operates on a franchise model, and via hospitals. The wholesaler has over a quarter of the market share in the latter channel, making it Bulgaria’s leading player in this field. Sopharma appears to be replicating its integrated business model in Serbia. In addition to buying manufacturer Pharmanova, it acquired Serbian distributor Lekovit in 2019.

In the consumer drugs and cosmetics segment, the Sopharmacy chain has grown from 60 pharmacies in 2019 to over 220 in 2024. "Given the nature of the market, with its high sales and low margins, scale is the most important factor in generating cash flow," says Tatiana Puncheva-Vassileva of Elana Trading. "Achieving scale requires significant investment in the acquisition of new pharmacies. And Sopharma Trading has been doing so aggressively over the past three years. We expect Sopharma Trading’s growth in pharmaceuticals to be driven by M&A for the next five years." In January of this year, Sopharma approved the largest half-year dividend ever paid out on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, i.e. 109 million leva, with a yield of 12.7%. Elana Trading subsequently issued a buy recommendation on the stock. "There is of course a risk of geopolitical turbulence in these key export markets, and we need to keep an eye on sales in this sector, where margins are falling and labour costs are rising, but this is a great company to watch."

Founded: 1961
Headquarter: Lubin, Poland
Employees: 34,000
2023 Revenues: €7.26 BN
Stock Exchange: KGH

The group benefits from strong copper demand, which is essential in green energy and new technologies. Formerly state-owned, KGHM is now one of the world’s leading copper producers, with estimated reserves totalling 40 million tonnes. The group is fully benefiting from flourishing demand for the red metal, a key component in power grids, electric vehicles and wind turbines. Poland, where KGHM operates three mines, accounts for 80% of its total production. "These deposits are geologically complex, as miners have to dig up to 1 km underground to reach them," says Jakub Szkopek, an Erste Group analyst. "However, they have a relatively high copper content of around 1.3%. That said, global demand for copper is expected to grow by 2% to 3% a year, and shortages could appear as early as 2026."

In addition to its mining activities, KGHM, which was privatised in 1991, operates three smelters and refineries that produce semi-finished products. Outside Poland, the company operates the Sierra Gorda mine in Chile, with a deposit of 1.3 billion tonnes of ores rich in copper, gold and molybdenum. The group also owns mines in the United States and Canada, where it produces copper, gold, nickel and silver. However, KGHM’s goals for expansion are hampered by environmental concerns, especially in Poland. This situation has forced the group to invest heavily in green technologies, such as wind power and mini-nuclear reactors, to decarbonise its operations. Most analysts recommend holding shares.