Financial institutions in the past few years increasingly have
been making travel-related acquisitions, and JPMorgan Chase in February upped
the ante with its acquisition of Frosch Travel Group.
Such acquisitions largely have involved smaller and/or
startup companies, such as U.S. Bancorp's acquisition of travel and expense
platform TravelBank and Capital One's acquisition of the assets of corporate
travel management startup Lola. With the Frosch acquisition, however, JPMorgan
added to its portfolio a travel management company that not only was a large,
established player but also one that had been on an acquisition streak of its
own. Frosch in recent years took a 51 percent stake in the corporate travel
division of Michigan-based Conlin Travel, took a majority stake in luxury
travel specialist Plaza Travel, and acquired Valerie Wilson Travel, Luxe Travel
and TCG Consulting.
A Chase spokesperson said that managing director and head of
travel Jason Wynn was an "integral partner" in the Frosch
acquisition, along with Chase's acquisition last year of the global loyalty
business of loyalty and technology solutions provider cxLoyalty, including its
full-service travel agency. Wynn is no stranger to the corporate travel realm, having
formerly been chief commercial officer for the now-shuttered Upside Business
Travel and before that about a decade as an executive with American Express
Global Business Travel.
Frosch CEO Bryan Leibman told BTN in June that Frosch was
not actively looking to be acquired, but JPMC approached them with a "one
plus one equals 10 proposition" in which Frosch would continue to operate
independently while being able to offer more stability and benefits to its
employees. JPMG has committed to maintaining all Frosch's brands and is looking
to significantly grow the business, having stated a goal of growing to a total
trading volume of $15 billion by the end of 2025, compared with about $8
billion today.
For Frosch, the acquisition also broadens its capability to
develop broader payment technologies as part of its offerings, offering
"an end-to-end solution that really the industry hasn't seen," Judith
Allen, president of Frosch's global corporate and energy division, told BTN.
Disclosure: Private equity company Eagle Tree
Capital owns BTN parent company Northstar Travel Group and is an investor in
Frosch.
Correction: In a former version of this article Frosch CEO Bryan Leibman was incorrectly referenced as Jason Leibman. BTN regrets the error.