Ant Financial, the digital payments affiliate of China’s Alibaba, has raised its bid for MoneyGram by 36 per cent to $1.2bn a month after Euronet Worldwide gate-crashed its original $880m offer.
The battle for Texas-based MoneyGram characterises many of the challenges facing Chinese mergers and acquisitions. Rival bidder Euronet and US politicians alike flagged the political risks of selling to a Chinese entity, while Ant pre-emptively raised $3bn overseas to avoid being snagged by China’s capital controls.
Alibaba, founded by former English teacher and now multi-billionaire Jack Ma, is among China’s most acquisitive companies as it seeks to take its vast domestic business global.