In the shadow of the emerging Covid epidemic, OTT-One had managed to secure a business deal worth over ten billion forints, but the former stock exchange company has not been showing any life signs for a while. Since last year the firm has neither a board of directors nor a supervisory board, and when the National Tax and Customs Administration did not find it at its registered address, the authority decided to cancel its tax identification number. In the end, the Budapest Metropolitan Court declared the company defunct in early February.
It is only a matter of speculation how the company’s path could lead from the showers of public funding to compulsory liquidation. The company’s balance sheets prepared in recent years would provide some guidance, but since 2019, a line of auditors have refused to authenticate them one after another. In other words, the financial experts did not find the company’s account of the economic events and the evolution of the firm’s assets credible.
Yet not so long ago, OTT-One was one of the lucky pioneers that were given a chance to participate in the Chinese ventilator business totalling several hundred billion forints, led by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó. The ministry didn’t bother with tenders; OTT-One previously told our paper that they had approached the authorities themselves and offered their services in the procurement process, citing their good Chinese connections. State agencies ordered life support devices from dozens of companies mostly unknown in the healthcare business, immediately paying the purchase price after signing the contracts. The deal looked like a great opportunity for OTT-One too, as