Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial has announced the acquisition of US payments company MoneyGram; Ant Financial plans to leverage and integrate MoneyGram's payments network to provide enhanced servicing for its digital clients; the acquisition represents a significant expansion of services both globally and into the US for Ant Financial; MoneyGram offers global money transfer services from over 350,000 global locations with over 40,000 payment processing locations in the Unites States; with MoneyGram Ant Financial will now have a broader payments network which currently includes its affiliate Alipay, a partnership with Paytm in India and a partnership with Ascend Money in Thailand; the acquisition also helps to support Ant Financial's mission to bring inclusive financial services to users globally. Source
Alibaba has reportedly increased its bid for payments company MoneyGram; Alibaba initially announced the acquisition in January which will broaden its payments network; new terms of the deal increase the offer price to $18 per share from $13.25 and have been approved by the board of directors; the increased deal value follows a competing bid from Euronet Worldwide. Source
After a yearlong battle trying to convince US regulators about their acquisition of MoneyGram, Alibaba’s Ant Financial called off the deal; having a significant presence in the US is the one area that Alibaba head Jack Ma has yet to succeed; the $1.2bn deal would have helped to establish their Alipay product immediately; this looks to potentially ratchet up trade issues between the two countries as the new administration has taken an aggressive stance towards China. Source.
US regulators did not sign off on Ant Financial’s acquisition of MoneyGram, but this won’t hamper their US ambitions; Last May Ant Financial did a deal with First Data, the payment infrastructure company; Ant Financial has been largely successful in China due to the unique financial system there; in the US they face other challenges which includes a more developed financial system with legacy players; it remains to be seen whether the eventual leaders in the US will be technology companies like Amazon, something we’ve seen happen in China. Source
PYMNTS.com provides insight from MoneyGram CEO Alex Holmes on the Ant Financial merger; the merger represents a strategic deal that Holmes says will significantly benefit the industry and the shareholders of both companies; both companies are leading payment providers with MoneyGram offering global payment processing capabilities and Ant Financial seeking to expand on its market position in payments through Alipay in China; "We are going to see, when this deal goes through, those capabilities getting built out between our two organizations in a much more robust and dynamic way," said Alex Holmes. Source
Ant Financial is planning to resubmit its application for U.S. review of its deal to buy MoneyGram International Inc for $1.2 billion, a source familiar with the matter said; Ant’s latest attempt for approval would be its third as the maximum time of 75 days for assessing such applications nears completion; CFIUS is a secretive government panel which reviews acquisitions by foreign entities for potential national security risks. Source
MoneyGram is testing XRP for reducing both the cost of transferring money and the settlement times; Both MoneyGram and XRP traded higher on the news; Ripple has signed on about 100 banks as customers, but is also targeting remittance companies; Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also tweeted that three of the five largest money-transfer companies would begin to use XRP this year. Source