Acquisition Expands Amex GBT’s Germany Footprint

American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) is bolstering its corporate travel and expense management solutions through the acquisition of DER Business Travel.

Reports in Travel Daily Media on Tuesday (June 25) said DER Touristik Group’s corporate travel unit, DER Business Travel, will be acquired by American Express GBT to strengthen the company’s presence in Germany, particularly for small and medium-sized business clients. Through the takeover, the companies will connect joint clients to each other’s solutions, providing DER access to a global market and its clients to Amex GBT’s core technology.

“Given the complementary nature of our businesses, the acquisition is a great opportunity for everyone involved,” said American Express GBT Senior Vice President and Managing Director International Elyes Mrad in a statement. “GBT services many global and multinational clients, while DER is focused on small to medium-sized enterprises trading in Germany.”

“This is a special moment for DER Business Travel, its employees and its clients,” added DER Managing Director Mark Tantz in another statement. “GBT and DER are both people-driven organizations with a passion for providing the best technology and service to clients. 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 Germany businesses.”

Financial terms of the acquisition were not reported.

American Express GBT has eyed mergers and acquisitions in its growth strategy for some time. In 2016, the company announced its acquisition of KDS to expand its corporate travel technology offering.

Strategic partnerships are another key part of Amex GBT’s strategy. Last year, the company announced a collaboration with Lyft to support the company’s rides within the Amex GBT platform. Their tie-up also lets business travelers take advantage of a data integration between the two platforms for enhanced reporting, compliance, analysis and duty of care.