Apollo Strategic Growth Capital (APSG) Shareholders Approve American Express GBT Deal
Apollo Strategic Growth Capital (NYSE:APSG) announced that its shareholders have voted to approve its combination with American Express Global Business Travel in a special meeting held earlier today.
A total of 52,956,302 Class A ordinary shares and 20,420,250 Class B ordinary shares, representing approximately 71.87% of the outstanding ordinary shares entitled to vote, were present at today’s meeting. The business combination was overwhelmingly approved as it received 70,615,819 votes in favor of the transaction and just 2,732,881 against it.
Redemption numbers have not yet been disclosed. However, APSG traded below its trust value of $10 throughout its redemption deadline Monday, May 23, and closed today at $7.94.
Upon the closing of the business combination, which is expected to occur on Friday, May 27, 2022, APSG will be renamed Global Business Travel Group, Inc. The combined company is expected to trade on the NYSE under the symbol “GBTG”.
The parties initially announced the $4.98 billion combination on December 3, 2021. New Jersey-based Amex GBT provides a marketplace and loyalty platform for companies providing business travel goods and services hosting $39 billion in total transaction value in 2019.
All other proposals on today’s ballot, including the issuance proposal, the equity incentive plan, and the employee stock purchase plan, were also approved at the special meeting.
ADVISORS
- Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC are acting as financial advisors to GBT.
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Steptoe & Johnson LLP are acting as legal advisors to GBT.
- Evercore is acting as financial and capital markets advisor to APSG.
- Houlihan Lokey also served as a financial advisor to APSG.
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is acting as legal counsel to APSG.
- Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Apollo Global Securities, Credit Suisse and Evercore acted as placement agents to APSG for the PIPE Investment.
- Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal counsel to the placement agents.