American Express Global Business Travel Simplifies Structure to Reduce Compliance Costs

American Express Global Business Travel has begun eliminating its umbrella partnership-C corporate (UP-C) structure.

With the series of transactions it has undertaken to do so, all of the company’s stockholders now hold the same class of common stock: Class A common stock, the B2B travel platform said in a Tuesday (July 11) press release.

“The company anticipates that simplifying its organizational structure through the corporate simplification will improve market data integrity, increase the company’s weighting on certain indices, eliminate barriers to increased holdings of the company’s Class A common stock by certain investors, and reduce administrative and tax compliance costs,” American Express Global Business Travel said in the release.

According to the press release, Global Business Travel Group operates the B2B travel platform, provides software and services to companies, and has travel professionals in more than 140 countries to support its customers and travelers.

This move comes at a time when business travel is coming back in a big way.

Total business travel spending is expected to grow 24% this year to reach over $1 trillion, American Express Global Business Travel executives said on March 9 during the company’s quarterly earnings call.

The company is strongly positioned for continued growth as business travel recovers from pandemic lockdowns around the globe and virtual events start to take a back seat to in-person gatherings, American Express Global Business Travel CEO Paul Abbott said during the call.

“Record new wins, high customer retention and strong momentum in the SME [small and medium-sized enterprise] segment delivered results ahead of our guidance for the year,” Abbott said at the time.

American Express Global Business Travel’s simplification of its organizational structure comes about 14 months after it began its life as a public company, having joined the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on May 31, 2022.

Abbott said that the move followed years of work to strengthen the company’s market leadership position and will give it the flexibility to further accelerate its growth strategy.

“With strategic initiatives over the last few years, including complementary accretive acquisitions, product and technology enhancements and lasting cost reductions, we have confidence that we are very well positioned to win a larger portion of the $1.4 trillion business travel market,” Abbott said on May 27, 2022, days before the firm went public.