American Express Global Business Travel plans to launch a "next-gen" version of Egencia early next year, building off its recently announced integration plans with SAP Concur Expense, the company said in its third-quarter earnings announcement.
The new Egencia version, which the company plans to release in the first quarter of 2026, will include "new agentic AI search" and a "redefined customer experience" in addition to the Concur Expense integration, which is part of the strategic alliance announced with SAP Concur last month, CEO Paul Abbott said in an earnings call. Meanwhile, the integrated travel and expense offering with Amex GBT and Concur, Complete, launched last week to its first customers, he said.
Amex GBT's acquisition of CWT, completed in early September, gave the company a significant boost in revenue and total transaction value for the travel management company. Revenue was up 13% year over year to $674 million in the third quarter. Excluding the growth from the CWT acquisition, revenue was up 3% year over year, which the company said was "in line with expectations."
Transactions were up 19% year over year for the quarter and up 4% not including CWT. That 4% was evenly divided between new customers and increased business from existing clients, according to Abbott.
Amex GBT's total transaction value increased 23% year over year to $9.5 billion. Excluding CWT, the increase was 9% year over year, "driven primarily by higher average ticket prices and hotel room rates in addition to transaction growth and a favorable [foreign exchange] impact," Abbott said.
Amex GBT CFO Karen Williams said the company is on track to meet its goal of $155 million in "synergies"—including workforce reductions along with consolidating real estate and vendor savings—from the CWT acquisition over the next three years. The company expects to achieve $55 million of that by the end of 2026, including $5 million by the end of this year.
With the acquisition complete, Amex GBT now projects total 2025 revenue of $2.705 billion to $2.725 billion, up 12% year over year. That is an increase of $227 million in revenue from its previous expectations, stemming fully from the acquisition and with "no change in expectations for the core business," according to the company. For 2026, Amex GBT projects revenue growth of about 20% year over year.
Abbott said the company is "cautiously optimistic" in terms of organic growth in 2026, with most clients in its most recent survey said they expected to hold travel budgets steady or slightly increase them for the year. He also said the company has seen a "noticeable increase" in meetings and events.
"In the last quarter, we've seen a double-digit increase in the number of forward bookings for meetings and events into 2026," Abbott said. "That's an encouraging sign."
Amex GBT reported a net loss of $62 million for the third quarter, an improvement from a net loss of $128 million in the third quarter of 2024.
This story was originally published on PhocusWire sister title BTN.