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Amex sells off half its global business travel
American Express will sell half its Global Business Travel (GBT) division to Certares, an investment group led by Travel Leaders Group co-chairman Greg O’Hara.
The transaction will "create greater investment capacity for GBT to further enhance its suite of products and services, attract new customers and grow internationally to deliver additional value to customers," Amex said.
The joint venture will continue to operate under the American Express Global Business Travel brand, but an investor group led by Certares will get a 50% stake in return for an investment of between $700 million and $1 billion.
Amex spokesperson Christine Elliott told TravelMole that "certainly international growth, digital/mobile solutions and other technology investments would be likely areas" for investing the new capital.
The deal should close in the second quarter of 2014.
AmEx’s corporate travel business has been squeezed in a tough economy, and fell 2% in the quarter ended June 30, Reuters reported.
O’Hara is the former chief investment officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co’s special investments group.
GBT employees will join the new structure and the GBT management team will remain in place.
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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