Navigant Returns To Nasdaq

Navigant International Inc. today announced it once again will trade its common shares on the Nasdaq National Market. Public trading on the travel management company resumes Jan. 17 under the symbol FLYR.

Navigant chief accounting officer John Coffman said he's "very excited" to get a fresh start in 2006, after what he deemed a "difficult" 2005. Navigant was delisted from Nasdaq in late 2004. Coffman said trouble began when the company filed a document with the Securities and Exchange Commission to register shares. "The SEC requires a review every three years and it just so happened that the filing was submitted at the end of our three years," he said.

Throughout 2005 "it was out of our control," Coffman said, and in the hands of auditing firms and the SEC. "All these things I don't control. If I could, I'd have felt a little better." In all, the process to get relisted took almost one year and a half-longer than Navigant hoped. "We had to prove our financial condition," Coffman said, "and we could not refile until external evaluation firms finished and the SEC approved everything."

David Gold, an analyst with Sidoti & Co. said, "They were late on their filings and they had to change the way they were accounting for something and get everything up to date to refile the numbers for 2004." He said the relisting is likely to create interest on Wall Street. "It's good they're able to put everything behind them," he said.

It remains to be seen however, how the split from U.K.-based TUI will affect Navigant. "It's hard to say," Gold said. "The partnership with TUI gave them a global presence, and from a marketing standpoint it's helpful, but it wasn't a big business generator when they were together, so I can't imagine that would change."

Coffman said some companies have expressed interest in picking up where TUI left off, and expects to make announcements in the next month. "We're very excited about the future because we control 100 percent of the network now," he said.