American Express Global Business Travel Update
Marriott is currently in negotiations with American Express Global Business Travel (AEGBT) to renew our global preferred agreement, which is set to expire on December 31, 2015. We continue to make good progress, but in order to allow ample time to solidify new and mutually beneficial terms we have agreed to extend the current agreement through March 31, 2016.
Over the past several months we have been diligently working with our counterparts at AEGBT, and the conversations have been and continue to be both positive and constructive.
In early 2014, American Express Company entered into a joint venture partnership with private equity firm Certares Capital and spun out the corporate travel business, creating AEGBT as a new stand-alone entity. There is now a new leadership team in place and they have expressed a desire to reset the relationship with Marriott, and have demonstrated this in their new posture and approach in our meetings and in our conversations to renew the agreement.
While we remain confident that we can reach agreement with AEGBT based on our conversations thus far, we are prepared for all contingencies and have developed a mitigation strategy. We have an experienced multi-disciplinary core team that has been engaged, and we will reach out to others if and when needed.
We will provide another update on our progress at the end of January 2016. In the interim, please let us know if you have questions or require further information.
