Alibaba's Ma Really Wants To Buy MoneyGram But Will It Be Approved?

Ant Financial, the China-based finance affiliate of the e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE: BABA) really wants to acquire Moneygram International Inc (NASDAQ: MGI).

Jack Ma, the brains behind Alibaba and Ant Financial initially presented an offer to acquire Moneygram at $13.25 per share in January, a bidding war pitted Ant Financial against Euronet. Over the weekend, Ant Financial may have emerged victorious with an $18 per share offer.

Not A Done Deal Just Yet

Gadfly's Tim Culpan noted that Euronet may not have lost the bidding war just yet as it could lobby the U.S. government that a deal with China's Ant Financial is a threat to U.S. interest. By comparison, Euronet is based in Kansas and was founded in Europe.

Culpan added that if Euronet is lucky, the proposed merger could end up on President Donald Trump's radar — and he has the power to kill the transaction. The problem is Trump's relationship with China appears to have improved notably after the two countries are closely cooperating to ease tensions with North Korea.

Meanwhile, Euronet could try to appeal directly to MoneyGram's investors to reject a deal with Ant Financial but convincing investors to vote in favor of patriotism and accept a lower dollar amount isn't likely to end in a favorable outcome for Euronet.

Bottom line, "Jack's back" with a "far more credible" offer for MoneyGram.

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Image Credit: By Ged Carroll from Hong Kong mostly, HKSAR (MoneyGram neon sign) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons