Leading TMC American Express Global Business Travel saw its revenue jump by 65 per cent in the first quarter of 2023 on the back of “continued growth” in business travel and “ongoing momentum” in its quest to win more SME clients.
The company, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange last year, announced on Tuesday (9 May) that revenue rose to $578 million in Q1 of 2023, compared with $350 million in the same quarter of 2022.
Amex GBT said that transactions rose by 61 per cent year-on-year to reach 76 per cent of 2019 levels, while total transaction value (TTV) went up by 88 per cent to $7.4 billion in Q1.
The TMC, which has been increasingly targeting the SME business travel market, added that transactions through these smaller and mid-sized organisations also increased by 61 per cent on the first quarter of 2022.
Over the past 12 months, Amex GBT has won $2.2 billion in annual business from SMEs, including 30 per cent from organisations whose travel had previously been “unmanaged”.
Paul Abbott, Amex GBT’s CEO, added: “Nearly one year after going public, we are delivering on the commitments we made. We reported strong first quarter 2023 results driven by continued growth in business travel, share gains and ongoing momentum in the SME customer segment.
“Our strong growth, combined with our proven ability to deliver high operating leverage and margin expansion, lead us to expect continued strong results in Q2 and for the full year.”
Amex GBT reported a net loss of $27 million for Q1 of 2023, which was an improvement from a loss of $91 million in the first quarter of last year.
Travel revenue increased by 82 per cent year-on-year to $467million in Q1, while revenue from product and professional services was up by 19 per cent to $111 million from a year ago.
The company is now predicting revenue for 2023 to be in the range of $2.17 billion to $2.22 billion, up by 17-20 per cent on 2022, with adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) forecast to be between $330 million and $370 million for the year, which would represent a margin of 15-17 per cent.