CMS advised American Express Company on matters of Dutch law in relation to the separation of the Global Business Travel operations into a Dutch holding structure and the entering into a joint venture with an investor group led by Qatar Investment Authority and Certares. The new joint venture partners invested $900 million for a 50% stake. The business will continue to operate under the "American Express Global Business Travel" brand. This transaction is one of the largest transactions in the history of business travel. Closing of the deal was on 30 June 2014.
GBT has over 14,000 employees and operations and network partners in 139 countries worldwide. American Express is the world's premier service company, and the largest credit card issuer (by purchase volume).
The Dutch CMS-team advising Amercian Express was led by Reinout Slot and consisted of Martijn van der Bie, Herman Boersen, Priamo Boi, Etienne Cox, Rogier de Vrey, Nathalja Doing, Kirsten Haanstra, Gilbert Joskin, Niels Koene, Arnout Scholten, Wouter Seinen, Roman Tarlavski, Gordon Tichelaar, Fleur van Assendelft d Coningh, Arne van Bijnen, Paulus van den Bos, Katja van Kranenburg-Hanspians, Silvia van Schaik, Marlene Veenman, Barbara Veldmaat, Clair Wermers, Mark Ziekman. CMS Budapest, Prague and Warsaw also advised on the deal.
