Skift Take
Expedia Group’s equity stake in American Express Global Company Travel has actually taken a shellacking to date, but other elements of the deal have long-term advantages.
Dennis Schaal
Expedia Group regularly talks up the benefits of its sale of corporate travel bureau Egencia to American Express Global Company Travel. Advantages consist of: A 10-year pact to supply Amex GBT with lodging inventory, and Expedia’s equity stake in it, at first valued in 2021 at $815 million.
But in 2023, Expedia Group recorded a $26 million loss on the fair value of that stake in Amex GBT, which came on top of a $300 million loss in 2022, according to a recent financial filing.
Expedia confirmed Monday that the reasonable value of its equity stake in Amex GBT was around $490 million at the end of 2023– a 40% plunge.
That loss will not shake the financials of Expedia Group, which notched $797 million in net income in 2023 on $12.8 billion in earnings.
Expedia’s deal to sell Egencia to Amex Global Service Travel may have been beneficial to Expedia on a variety of levels. It allowed Expedia to lock in that long-lasting deal to offer hotel stays and vacation rentals to service tourists through Amex GBT, the largest corporate travel bureau on the planet.
Expedia Group CEO designee Ariane Gorin played a key role in the Egencia sale to Amex GBT, an Expedia representative stated Monday.
The deal allowed Expedia to shed a non-core business during a duration when Expedia was attempting to streamline its distant operations. And Expedia saw the deal as ingenious due to the fact that it made it possible for the company to protect a substantial minority position in the leading gamer in service travel without having to run its own business travel company. Expedia has 16% voting power in Amex GBT, has a board seat, and is the third biggest investor.
Expedia’s Stake in Amex GBT Damaged
However that Expedia equity stake in Amex Global Service Travel has taken a damaging given that the closing of the offer, the financial filing showed.
Here’s what took place:
- On November 1, 2021, Expedia Group sold Egencia to privately held Amex GBT in an all-stock offer. Expedia took a 19% stake in Amex GBT valued at $815 million.
- At that time, Expedia Group removed Egencia, which became part of Expedia’s B2B arm, from its outcomes of operations, and recorded a $401 million gain.
- Amex GBT went public in a special function acquisition business merger in May 2022, and that deal decreased Expedia’s stake in the successor company to 16%.
- In addition, after shares started trading, Amex GBT’s price fell 14% by December 29, 2023. It’s fallen another 8% ever since.
- In 2022, Expedia recognized a $300 million loss in the reasonable value of its Amex equity stake.
- In 2023, Expedia taped a $26 million loss.
The Expedia-Amex GBT Partnership
An Expedia spokesperson noted that Amex GBT was a private business when it at first estimated the value of its stake. When its shares started trading, there was a known public worth.
“Amex GBT was a private business when we made our preliminary investment in the business, and the worth of that financial investment was based upon an assessment of AmexGBT’s reasonable worth using reduced future cash flow and other strategies,” an Expedia spokesperson said. “Amex GBT ended up being a public company in 2022, and we now mark-to-market our equity ownership in the business. So the value of our stake modifications based on the modifications in AmexGBT’s public value.”
Beyond the worth of Expedia stake in Amex GBT, Expedia sees the supply relationship as advantageous.
“Our 10-year supply arrangement with Amex GBT is working very well and we do not openly divulge those information,” the Expedia representative stated. “The worth we get from our supply agreement is separate from the equity worth of our stake in Amex GBT.”
Stocks costs fluctuate so Expedia may undoubtedly recoup its losses on its Amex GBT stake in the long term.
On the other hand, the two business have begun to work together on ventures aside from the accommodations provider contract. The business revealed earlier this month that Amex’s Egencia will use an Expedia fraud avoidance option to curb any troublesome Egencia reservations.