American Express reported a 1 percent decrease in global corporate travel sales versus the prior year-over-year period, to $4.9 billion.

The slight decline followed three consecutive quarters of growth. The company also reported a $626 million gain from the closing of its business travel joint venture with investment firm Certares, which helped boost net income for the quarter by 9 percent to $1.5 billion. Total expenses decreased 58 percent to $361 million compared to last year, also attributed to the joint venture. Card-billed business in the Global Commercial Services division rose 7 percent year over year to $47.6 billion. GCS cards in force remained flat at seven million, but average cardholder spending rose 7 percent to $6,781.