American Express Global Business Travel reported a 10 percent year-over-year increase in total transaction value in the fourth quarter of 2024, capping what CEO Paul Abbott said was a "record year" for revenue and large customer retention. The travel management company in its earnings call on Thursday also confirmed it's pushed back the expected closing of its acquisition of CWT to later this year.
TTV for the fourth quarter totaled $6.9 billion, up from $6.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, and revenue increased 8 percent to $591 million. Travel revenue increased 7 percent year over year to $456 million, and products and professional services revenue was up 10 percent year over year to $135 million.
Abbott said Amex GBT has started off 2025 with "good momentum," and a February survey of the TMC's top 100 customers showed that 80 percent said their travel spending will be flat or up this year. Transactions showed growth following the November U.S. election, with growth rates in November and December two percentage points higher than they were for the full quarter.
That "was encouraging, but there is still a fair amount of uncertainty in terms of the geopolitical environment," Abbott said. "For businesses, in order to plan longer-term, stability is important."
For the full year, Amex GBT reported TTV was up 8 percent year over year to $30.5 billion, and revenue increased 6 percent to $2.4 billion. Transaction growth for the year was 5 percent, building off growth of 18 percent in 2023. That growth in 2024 was stronger for global multinational clients, which had transaction growth of 8 percent compared with 2 percent for small and midsized clients.
"SME transaction growth has been muted but stable for several quarters," Abbott said.
Even so, SME clients accounted for $2.2 billion of Amex GBT's reported $2.8 billion in customer wins for the year, Abbott said. About a quarter of those new SME clients were previously unmanaged, he said. The company has a "strong" sales pipeline in the current quarter and reported retention rates of 97 percent of TTV for all customers and 99 percent for global multinational customers, he said.
On a regional basis, 2024 transactions were up 5 percent year over year in the Americas, up 2 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and up 12 percent in the Asia/Pacific region, Abbott said.
Amex GBT reported a net loss of $14 million for the fourth quarter, an improvement from a $46 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2023. For the full year, Amex GBT's net loss was $134 million, slightly better than its $136 million loss in 2023.
CWT Acquisition Update
With a trial date set for Sept. 8 for the U.S. Department of Justice's civil antitrust lawsuit to block Amex GBT's $570 million acquisition of CWT, Amex GBT now expects the transaction to close in the third or, more likely, fourth quarter of this year, Amex GBT chief legal officer, corporate secretary and global head of M&A Eric Bock said during the earnings call. The original targeted closing was in the current quarter.
"There are a number of other different scenarios, but for planning purposes, assume the trial on Sept. 8," Bock said. "The trial lasts two or three weeks, and a judge will render a decision thereafter, which probably gets you into the October time."
Bock said the recent report by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, signaling a reversal of its opposition to the merger, was a "positive factor in the facts of the case," laying out that there are "a lot of competitors in the space today." Abbott said the CMA findings show the DOJ's findings are "fundamentally flawed."
"We expect to prove that in court if required," Abbott said.
Bock added that Amex GBT will "continue to have dialogue with DOJ" leading up to the trial date, as the case was filed in the last days of the Biden administration.
"The [Trump administration] may have a different point of view on this," Bock said. "We don't know. We can't speculate. We'll continue to talk to the U.S. government about this case and move forward as appropriate."
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