Another day, another acquisition. This time it is the turn of American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT), the world’s leading business partner for managed travel, which announced Tuesday (June 25) it would acquire German business travel agency DER Business Travel (DER) for an undisclosed price.
The acquisition is pending antitrust approvals and is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
DER, the corporate arm of diversified retail and travel company DER Touristik Group, is headquartered in Frankfurt. It operates in 42 cities across Germany with 600 employees serving small and mid-sized enterprises.
Amex GBT said this purchase would expand its footprint into Germany’s SME sector, while DER’s travel management offering would be enhanced by GBT’s international scale and global network.
Additionally, DER’s corporate clients will gain from Amex GBT’s travel and expense ecosystem and technology platform.
“Given the complementary nature of our businesses the acquisition is a great opportunity for everyone involved,” said Elyes Mrad, Amex GBT’s senior vice president and managing director, international. “GBT services many global and multinational clients, while DER is focused on small to medium-sized enterprises trading in Germany.”
Mark Tantz, DER managing director, added: “With GBT’s scale and proprietary tech stack and our expertise and relationships in Germany, this is a real opportunity to offer a new, collective value proposition to German businesses.”
Amex GBT’s purchase of DER follows the completion of its acquisition in July 2018 of Hogg Robinson Group (HRG), the UK-based global B2B services company specialising in travel management.
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