American Express Global Business Travel Reports Strong Q2 2026 Financial Results

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--American Express Global Business Travel, which is operated by Global Business Travel Group, Inc. (NYSE: GBTG) ("Amex GBT" or the "Company"), a leading software and services company for travel, expense and meetings & events, today reported second quarter 2026 financial results.

Results include the impact of acquisitions for Q2 2026 only.

Paul Abbott, Chief Executive Officer:

"We delivered strong growth and commercial and product success. Total New Wins Value accelerated to $3.5 billion, with double-digit SME growth and major wins with Google, Koch and Pfizer, while maintaining an impressive 95% customer retention rate. Our new product innovations are clearly resonating with customers, including our proprietary agent-to-agent architecture, our Egencia AI connector in Claude and enhancements for Complete by SAP Concur and Amex GBT."

Business Highlights

• Strong growth and financial performance. Delivered revenue growth of 38% with Adjusted Gross Profit Margin of 59% and Adjusted EBITDA of $178 million.

• Continued commercial progress. LTM Total New Wins Value accelerated to $3.5 billion, including major new wins with Google, Koch and Pfizer. Maintained strong customer retention rate of 95%, including CWT. Strong momentum in SME, with LTM SME New Wins Value of $2.3 billion, up 11% year-over-year.

• Product innovation. Launched Egencia AI connector in Claude, one of the business travel industry's first agentic integrations enabling both travelers and enterprise AI agents to book and manage policy-compliant air and hotel transactions without leaving the tools they already work in. Also expanded Egencia's conversational AI into Google Chat and a conversational AI pilot in Microsoft Teams for Neo customers. Egencia integration with Concur Expense is now live for all customers.

• SAP Strategic Alliance. 83% of eligible joint customers are now using Complete by SAP Concur and Amex GBT, the new, AI-powered flagship solution for travel and expense. A new set of innovations for Complete have been launched that help travelers navigate disruptions more easily, give travel managers greater visibility into program performance and make it easier for organizations to capture more value from their travel investments.

Second Quarter 2026 Operational & Financial Highlights
(Changes compared to prior year period unless otherwise noted)

• TTV growth of 57% and Transaction Growth of 45%.

• Revenue of $870 million increased 38%. Within this, Travel Revenue increased 38% due to acquisition impacts, growth in business travel demand and share gains. Product and Professional Services Revenue increased 38%. Excluding the impact of acquisitions, revenue growth was 10%.

• Total operating expenses of $846 million increased 42%, primarily due to the impact of acquisitions, increased cost of revenue to drive growth and increased investments in technology, content, sales and marketing, partially offset by $18 million of cost transformation benefits and $14 million of CWT net synergies, which was in line with expectations. Additionally, there were restructuring costs related to achievement of CWT synergies and broader cost transformation and higher depreciation and amortization.

• Net income of $17 million increased 14%. Revenue growth and higher benefit from income taxes were offset by higher operating expenses, including restructuring costs related to achieving CWT synergies and broader cost transformation initiatives, and unfavorable movement on earnout derivative liabilities.

• Net cash from operating activities of $142 million increased 153% primarily due to favorable working capital timing and lower cash taxes.

• Free Cash Flow of $103 million increased 281%, due to higher net cash from operating activities, partially offset by increased investments in purchase of property and equipment.

Shareholder approval for the proposed acquisition of the Company by Long Lake Management (the "Merger") was obtained on August 3, 2026. The Merger is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including receipt of regulatory approvals.

Glossary of Terms

See the "Glossary of Terms" for the definitions of certain terms used within this press release.

About American Express Global Business Travel

American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) is a leading software and services company for travel, expense, and meetings & events. We have built the most valuable marketplace in travel with the most comprehensive and competitive content. A choice of solutions brought to you through a strong combination of technology and people, delivering the best experiences. With travel professionals and business partners in more than 140 countries, our solutions deliver savings, flexibility, and service from a brand you can trust – Amex GBT.

Visit amexglobalbusinesstravel.com for more information about Amex GBT. Follow @amexgbt on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Additional Information and Disclosures

Glossary of Terms

• AI refers to Artificial Intelligence.

• CWT refers to CWT Holdings, LLC.

• Customer retention rate is calculated based on traded Total Transaction Value in the quarter versus the same period in the prior year.

• LTM refers to the last twelve months ended June 30, 2026.

• GMN refers to Global & Multinational Enterprises and SME refers to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. For organizational management purposes, Amex GBT divides the customer base into these two general categories, generally on the basis of annual TTV, although this measure can vary by country and by customer preference. Amex GBT offers all products and services to all sizes of customer, as customers of all sizes may prefer different solutions.

• SME New Wins Value is calculated using expected annual Total Transaction Value (TTV) over the contract term from all SME new client wins over the last twelve months.

• Total New Wins Value is calculated using expected annual Total Transaction Value (TTV) over the contract term from all new client wins over the last twelve months.

• Total Transaction Value or TTV refers to the sum of the total price paid by travelers for air, hotel, rail, car rental and cruise bookings, including taxes and other charges applied by suppliers at point of sale, less cancellations and refunds.

• Transaction Growth represents year-over-year increase or decrease as a percentage of the total transactions, including air, hotel, car rental, rail or other travel-related transactions, recorded at the time of booking, and is calculated on a net basis to exclude cancellations, refunds and exchanges. To calculate year-over-year growth or decline, we compare the total number of net transactions in the comparative previous period/ year to the total number of net transactions in the current period/year in percentage terms. We have presented Transaction Growth on a net basis to exclude cancellations, refunds and exchanges as management believes this better aligns Transaction Growth with the way we measure TTV and earn revenue. Prior period Transaction Growth percentages have been recalculated and represented to conform to current period presentation.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We report our financial results in accordance with GAAP. Our non-GAAP financial measures are provided in addition, and should not be considered as an alternative, to other performance or liquidity measures derived in accordance with GAAP. Non-GAAP financial measures have limitations as analytical tools, and you should not consider them either in isolation or as a substitute for analyzing our results as reported under GAAP. In addition, because not all companies use identical calculations, the presentations of our non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies and can differ significantly from company to company.

Management believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide users of our financial information with useful supplemental information that enables a better comparison of our performance or liquidity across periods. In addition, we use certain of these non-GAAP financial measures as performance measures as they are important metrics used by management to evaluate and understand the underlying operations and business trends, forecast future results and determine future capital investment allocations. We also use certain of our non-GAAP financial measures as indicators of our ability to generate cash to meet our liquidity needs and to assist our management in evaluating our financial flexibility, capital structure and leverage. These non-GAAP financial measures supplement comparable GAAP measures in the evaluation of the effectiveness of our business strategies, to make budgeting decisions, and/or to compare our performance and liquidity against that of other peer companies using similar measures.

We define Adjusted Gross Profit as revenue less cost of revenue (excluding depreciation and amortization).

We define Adjusted Gross Profit Margin as Adjusted Gross Profit divided by revenue.

We define EBITDA as net income (loss) before interest income, interest expense, gain (loss) on early extinguishment of debt, benefit from (provision for) income taxes and depreciation and amortization.

We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) before interest income, interest expense, gain (loss) on early extinguishment of debt, benefit from (provision for) income taxes and depreciation and amortization and as further adjusted to exclude costs that management believes are non-core to the underlying business of the Company, consisting of restructuring, exit and related charges, integration costs, costs related to mergers and acquisitions, non-cash equity-based compensation and related employer taxes, long-term incentive plan costs, certain corporate costs, fair value movements on earnout derivative liabilities, foreign currency gains (losses) and non-service components of net periodic pension benefit (costs).

We define Adjusted EBITDA Margin as Adjusted EBITDA divided by revenue.

We define Adjusted Operating Expenses as total operating expenses excluding depreciation and amortization and costs that management believes are non-core to the underlying business of the Company, consisting of restructuring, exit and related charges, integration costs, costs related to mergers and acquisitions, non-cash equity-based compensation and related employer taxes, long-term incentive plan costs and certain corporate costs.

Adjusted Gross Profit, Adjusted Gross Profit Margin, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin and Adjusted Operating Expenses are supplemental non-GAAP financial measures of operating performance that do not represent and should not be considered as alternatives to gross profit, net income (loss) or total operating expenses, as determined under GAAP. In addition, these measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies.

These non-GAAP measures have limitations as analytical tools, and these measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of the Company’s results or expenses as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are that these measures do not reflect:

• changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs or contractual commitments;
• our interest expense, or the cash requirements to service interest or principal payments on our indebtedness;
• our tax expense, or the cash requirements to pay our taxes;
• recurring, non-cash expenses of depreciation and amortization of property and equipment and definite-lived intangible assets and, although these are non-cash expenses, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future;
• the non-cash expense of stock-based compensation, which has been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, an important part of how we attract and retain our employees and a significant recurring expense in our business;
• restructuring, mergers and acquisition and integration costs, all of which are intrinsic to our acquisitive business model; and
• impact on earnings or changes resulting from matters that are non-core to our underlying business, as we believe they are not indicative of our underlying operations.

Adjusted Gross Profit, Adjusted Gross Profit Margin, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin and Adjusted Operating Expenses should not be considered as a measure of liquidity or as a measure determining discretionary cash available to us to reinvest in the growth of our business or as measures of cash that will be available to us to meet our obligations.

We believe that the adjustments applied in presenting Adjusted Gross Profit, Adjusted Gross Profit Margin, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin and Adjusted Operating Expenses are appropriate to provide additional information to investors about certain material non-cash and other items that management believes are non-core to our underlying business.

We use these measures as performance measures as they are important metrics used by management to evaluate and understand the underlying operations and business trends, forecast future results and determine future capital investment allocations. These non-GAAP measures supplement comparable GAAP measures in the evaluation of the effectiveness of our business strategies, to make budgeting decisions, and to compare our performance against that of other peer companies using similar measures. We also believe that Adjusted Gross Profit, Adjusted Gross Profit Margin, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin and Adjusted Operating Expenses are helpful supplemental measures to assist potential investors and analysts in evaluating our operating results across reporting periods on a consistent basis.

We define Free Cash Flow as net cash from (used in) operating activities, less cash used for additions to property and equipment.

We believe Free Cash Flow is an important measure of our liquidity. This measure is a useful indicator of our ability to generate cash to meet our liquidity demands. We use this measure to conduct and evaluate our operating liquidity. We believe it typically presents an alternate measure of cash flow since purchases of property and equipment are a necessary component of our ongoing operations and it provides useful information regarding how cash provided by operating activities compares to the property and equipment investments required to maintain and grow our platform. We believe Free Cash Flow provides investors with an understanding of how assets are performing and measures management’s effectiveness in managing cash.

Free Cash Flow is a non-GAAP measure and may not be comparable to similarly named measures used by other companies. This measure has limitations in that it does not represent the total increase or decrease in the cash balance for the period, nor does it represent cash flow for discretionary expenditures. This measure should not be considered as a measure of liquidity or cash flow from operations as determined under GAAP. This measure is not a measurement of our financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to net income (loss) or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP or as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of liquidity.

We define Net Debt as total debt outstanding consisting of the current and non-current portion of long-term debt, net of unamortized debt discount and unamortized debt issuance costs, minus cash and cash equivalents. Net Debt is a non-GAAP measure and may not be comparable to similarly named measures used by other companies. This measure is not a measurement of our indebtedness as determined under GAAP and should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to assess our total debt or any other measures derived in accordance with GAAP or as an alternative to total debt. Management uses Net Debt to review our overall liquidity, financial flexibility, capital structure and leverage. Further, we believe that certain debt rating agencies, creditors and credit analysts monitor our Net Debt as part of their assessment of our business.

Investor Contact: Jennifer Thorington, investor@amexgbt.com

Media Contact: Megan Kat, megan.kat@amexgbt.com