Western Union in frame for MoneyGram buy - Mobile World Live

Western Union in frame for MoneyGram buy

02 JUN 2020

Remittance giant Western Union became the latest name linked with a buyout of rival MoneyGram, which has been the subject of numerous acquisition attempts in the last four years.

Bloomberg reported Western Union had made an offer for the company. No details or the potential price were floated for MoneyGram, which reported a sharp drop-off in transactions through physical collection channels during the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

Although both companies reported year-on-year declines in consumer remittances through their traditional methods in their respective Q1 results, both noted increased use of digital payments.

Notably, Western Union signed a number of deals with mobile money providers in the last two years as it looks to expand its reach into popular modern channels for receipt of international fund transfers.

Targeted
US-based MoneyGram has regularly been linked with takeover attempts over recent years.

In early 2017 Alipay-parent Any Financial fended off a rival bid from Euronet to secure the backing of MoneyGram shareholders for its $1.2 billion offer.

However, the deal eventually fell through after China-based Ant Financial conceded it was unlikely to get through US foreign investment authorities. In early 2019, MoneyGram executives reportedly began exploring a fresh attempt to find a buyer.

Back

Author

Chris Donkin

Chris joined the Mobile World Live team in November 2016 having previously worked at a number of UK media outlets including Trinity Mirror, The Press Association and UK telecoms publication Mobile News. After spending 10 years in journalism, he moved...

Read more

Related

Tags