The year 2024 marks an important milestone for AirPlus, with the Swedish bank SEB making your takeover from the Lufthansa group official. How are things shaping up with your new owner?
Julie Troussicot - Since 1 August, our sole shareholder has been the Swedish banking group SEBSEB Kort, its payment division, and AirPlus International. In this context, Mads Krumhardt Enggren, the former CEO of SEB Kort, has become CEO of AirPlus International. We are currently in a work phase to identify opportunities for our customers and partners, validate synergies and at the same time build a common strategy for 2025.
What synergies could be derived from this merger?
J. T. - First and foremost, it's about complementarity. This will be the watchword, since SEB Kort's geographical presence is essentially focused on Northern Europe, while AirPlus has a strong presence throughout the rest of Europe, particularly in France. There is also a complementarity between our products. AirPlus is very strong in embedded and virtual cards, while SEB Kort is the market leader in corporate cards. While the synergies will be mainly internal, they will also benefit our customers. For example, AirPlus customers will be able to have corporate cards in the Nordic countries, while SEB Kort's Swedish customers will be able to have payment solutions in France.
Will this takeover have any repercussions in France, one of the key markets for AirPlus?
J. T. - It changes absolutely nothing for our French customers. The products are there, the team is there. It's even growing to over 40 employees, compared with around thirty before Covid. Which is in line with our double-digit growth expected in 2024, of the order of +15%, compared with 2023. This represents a slightly higher increase than for business travel in general. This can be explained both by the acquisition of new customers and by the expansion of our product range among our existing customers. Some of these customers, who already had a corporate card, now have a virtual or corporate card.
How far have you got with the roll-out of the corporate card you launched in 2018?
J. T. - It should speed up. Without being able to give more details, I can confirm that this summer we signed a strategic partnership with a major French bank which has been rolling out co-branded cards with AirPlus since September. It already had one, but without all the functions that customers expect. It had two options: either to invest in developing them, or to turn to a partner, whichever solution it chose. Between the call for tenders and the test phase, it took several months. But today, this bank offers corporate cards in its product catalogue, as well as AirPlus virtual cards. We realised during the pilot phase that one out of every two customers who came for a corporate card also took the virtual card, which meets the growing need to pay for online expenses such as media subscriptions, software licences and other small general purchases.
Is this partnership the first of many of its kind?
J. T. - In any case, it's a real token of recognition and confidence in the quality of our products. And we hope that, in time, other banks will follow our example! This is at the heart of the Group's development, especially as this type of partnership is also part of SEB Kort's strategy in Northern Europe. For example, many banks in Scandinavia also co-brand their products, with SEB Kort also being associated with the SAS loyalty programme.
Does the fact that this French bank has turned to AirPlus demonstrate the need for real expertise in the world of business travel payments?
J. T. - This French bank clearly understood that it was a profession and that's why they chose us. Having a product that is fully integrated into the travel & expense ecosystem, with travel agencies, in SBTs and HBTs, in expense claim tools, in an ERP, all of this requires heavy investment. That's what we've been doing for 30 years, with specialised sales teams.
However, this expertise needs to be maintained. What are the latest developments in your solutions?
J. T. - Alongside the roll-out of the corporate card and possible banking partnerships, our other development priority is to continue to broaden acceptance of our debit card with new players in the travel ecosystem. Compared with our competitors, we are often a step ahead when it comes to integration. It's an ongoing process. Particularly as, once the 'pipes' have been created, we have to continue to ensure on a day-to-day basis that the data flows smoothly, as well as supporting companies if they decide to change supplier... At the same time, we have almost completed the migration of our products to our new technological platform. All the virtual and corporate cards and some of the hosted cards are already there. All that remains is to migrate the most complex accounts. But by the end of 2025, 100% of our customers, all products combined, will be on this new platform, which offers greater autonomy and ergonomics.
Is acceptance of your virtual card also an issue?
J. T. - It's the most practical solution for everything that turns around mobility. In this context, we are beginning to move towards payment for tolls and car parks, for example with PaybyPhone for Business. One of our corporate card customers was looking for a solution that would mean their employees would no longer have to put their personal cards into the application, and would instead be able to pay centrally. PaybyPhone also had an interest in this development, because once a virtual card is plugged into the employee's app, the adoption rate is much higher.
You also wanted to extend the scope of your solutions to indirect purchasing. Have you expanded your relationships in this area too?
J. T. - Yes, in particular with Billhop, Coupa and Mazepay. There are a lot of players like that who want to help companies better manage their indirect purchases, improve cash flow or accept a means of payment other than bank transfer from a supplier. As a result, we are coming more and more to integrate a virtual map into the processThis is true even for high value purchases, from €100,000 to €500,000. Buyers, who are often the same as those in the travel industry, see what works and want to see it duplicated in other categories of purchase, so they can control them better.
In the travel industry, too, there is a nebulous area of expense management: MICE. How do you approach this complex subject?
J. T. - This is a major problem for all our customers, as their staff are travelling less and less for small internal meetings, and more and more for seminars, training courses, conferences and trade fairs. We can see that all buyers have plans for improve control over the MICE budgetThis starts with visibility of expenditure. That's why, over the past year, we've been working hard to understand who's doing what. The big MICE platforms, which accept centralised payment, are just the tip of the iceberg. Behind them, there are all sorts of suppliers with different missions and roles. Agencies, sub-platforms of sub-platforms, meeting planners, DMCs. Now that we have an overview of the whole ecosystem, and have developed expertise dedicated to MICE, we want to improve the processes with all these players. Whether you're looking for a secure card or a virtual card, we can always find a solution to optimise payment.
