Travel management firm Hogg Robinson Group (HRG) has halted its stock market floatation less than one month after it announced it would be issuing new shares. But HRG has stated that the planned sale will still go ahead and that the halt is a temporary one.
Reacting to the rumour that the company is in the process of being taken over by American Express, a spokesperson told abtn: "HRG is not and has never been in any kind of merger or takeover talks with American Express, I've no idea where that story came from."
In other news the company's German arm has launched HRG Mileage Management in response to the decision made earlier this year by the German Federal Industrial Tribunal, which ruled that business travellers gaining frequent flyer miles would have to surrender them to their company for distribution within and to offset against their corporate travel costs.
HRG Germany managing director Wolfgang Wirthmann explains: ”The new legislation is good news for employers as they have the right to use the frequent flyer miles accumulated by their business travellers as a rebate against air travel costs. In the past, the administration costs associated with trying to effectively manage these bonus miles outweigh any financial benefit to the company.
”HRG Mileage Management has been designed to help our clients manage and optimise the use of these ”free” miles quickly and efficiently. The new solution is designed to help clients obtain the most benefit and value from these awards and maximises their travel budget by reducing their overall air travel costs.”
HRG Mileage Management is available as a fully integrated solution or on a component basis. The four modules are:
Mileage trend analyser ” a comprehensive reporting module, detailing the miles available to the organisation and the potential ”value” of these frequent flyer points.
Mileage monitoring ” an online solution which outlines, on an individual traveller basis, how many miles have been accumulated, which miles have already been committed and what savings may be achieved.
Companies may, if they so choose, pass back the frequent flyer benefits gained from corporate travel to the employees who earned them
Mileage application ” allowing HRG Germany to administer flight bookings or upgrades using accumulated bonus miles.
Mileage consulting ” highlighting how the various frequent flyer programmes may be used to obtain maximum benefit for clients, taking into account travel policy guidelines and preferred supplier agreements.
HRG's recent contract gains have been with Credit Suisse and financial group Nomura.