Amex agrees to buy French restaurant firm TheFork

• Key insight: Amex agreed to acquire French restaurant firm TheFork for $700 million. 
• What’s at stake: To compete with fintechs that are honing in on travel perks, the bank is spending more on premium experiences. 
• Forward look: The deal is scheduled to close sometime this year, pending a labor review and other regulatory approvals. 

American Express is leaning on premium experiences to bolster its high-end customer base as fintech rivals add travel payments, a strategy that includes a plan to acquire TheFork, a European restaurant technology firm.

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TheFork is a Paris-based company that sells online restaurant tools such as reservations and management with more than 50,000 clients in 11 European countries. The deal, which Amex hopes will close in 2026, was characterized as a “proposal,” which Amex said referred to a labor consultation and regulatory approvals. TheFork would continue to operate under its existing leadership team following the close, according to Amex. TheFork was founded in 2007, and is currently owned by travel firm Tripadvisor. 

Amex says TheFork will add to its other acquisitions in the restaurant technology industry, including restaurant CRM and technology firm Resy and Tock, a reservation, table and event management company.    

“Dining is one of the most important ways people engage with our brand,” said Rafa Marquez, president of international card services at Amex, in a release. “Over time, the proposed acquisition would help us enrich our differentiated Membership Model by offering Card Members more ways to discover, book and access great restaurants, while helping our partners reach more diners and grow their businesses.”

TheFork’s European presence extends the Resy playbook to Amex’s expansion efforts in Europe, according to analysts at William Blair. “Amex’s international expansion initiative is highly focused on select key markets, and management had previously disclosed that the top 15 countries represent 57% of international card revenue while the top 5 represent 33%,” William Blair analysts said in a research note.

Amex maintains its premium focus abroad with the deal, with international members spending four times the industry average, having higher credit quality, and seeking out premium products, William Blair analysts said. “Moreover, international members have a greater mix of T&E and cross-border spend relative to U.S. members. Amex’s international segment has seen the highest billing growth across the business, with FX-adjusted growth of 12%-13% in each of the last five quarters,” the analysts said.

Restaurants play a role in Amex’s attempt to expand its incentive marketing beyond travel-related credits and more toward experiences such as entertainment and leisure. Amex recently refreshed its premium cards, a process that includes card and site redesigns as well as updates to financial incentives, loyalty and other perks. This requires a boost in customer acquisition and retention expense for Amex, but also enables the company to differentiate itself in a time when consumers are navigating inflation and other economic challenges. Another recent move is an agentic commerce development kit, which merchants and consumers can use to shop, access loyalty programs and other services through new forms of AI that require little or no human intervention. 

Amex has economic space to pursue these strategies. The company recently affirmed its full-year 2026 guidance for 9% to 10% revenue growth and EPS of $17.30 to $17.90, and said it would increase its spending on marketing and technology. 

Amex’s performance was better than historical seasonality would suggest across both delinquencies and net chargoffs in May with delinquencies of 1.10% improving 10 basis points month over month and net chargeoffs of 2% declining 10 basis points, according to a note from Jeffries analysts on Monday.