3 Questions to Luca Patanè Chairman of Uvet American Express Corporate Travel

Why did you invest in Avexia Voyages?
Our Italian group has been a shareholder in Avexia Voyages since its creation in 2008. With a capital injection of €1.2 million, Uvet now owns 64 % of this American Express partner network specialising in business travel management for SMEs. Avexia, which has 5,000 customers and annual sales of €105 million, needed financing to grow and strengthen its position in the French market.

This financial solidity is essential in the current period. We believe in the future of Avexia, which will become more competitive and expand in its market, where there are still significant opportunities for growth, as many SMEs and SMIs need to optimise their business travel costs.

What are your plans for Avexia?
Uvet will be developing synergies with Avexia to improve service standards and offer the best technological solutions, with the introduction of a new booking platform. For the past year, Uvet has been providing business travellers in Italy with a voice booking system via mobile phones. Eventually, we'd like to roll out this innovation in France.

Will you be increasing the number of Avexia sites in France?
I want to increase our regional presence with the creation of platforms in Marseille and Toulouse. These will complement our ten or so sites in Montpellier, Lille, Caen, Saint-Denis, Metz, Poitiers, Libourne... Finally, we will need to invest in technology to strengthen one of our three sites in the Rhône-Alpes region - Villefranche, Chambéry or Saint-Étienne - so that we have a central booking platform.