MoneyGram Receives Takeover Offer from Western Union

According to an article that Bloomberg posted on the 1st of June, the global payments giant, Western Union, has made a takeover offer for Moneygram. Should this be successful, it would stand to combine two of the largest money-transfer companies within the US.

MoneyGram Buckling Under Pandemic Pressure

Many businesses have been forced to close off due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the many lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders that were given out as a response. MoneyGram itself was also affected by this, being forced to close off its local branches.

However, the number of digital transactions taking place has risen immensely due to the fact that everyone needs to stay at home. Even so, they only accounted for 18% of the money transfers within Q1 2020, according to Bloomberg. Even after the company partnered up with Ripple back in 2019, MoneyGram was forced to report a “quiet” first quarter for 2020

A Bit Of A Leak

This information was revealed by a person familiar with the matter, according to Bloomberg. This anonymous individual asked for their identity to be hidden from the public, due to the fact that the matter hasn’t been made public yet. This source explained that no decision had been made yet, but Western Union could opt to push on with its takeover without a deal, as well.

As one would imagine, neither company gave comment at a private matter being leaked.

MoneyGram, compared to Western Union, is but a small fish, with its stock price closing at $2.59 a share. This gives MoneyGram a market value of $164 million, but also holds approximately $878 million in debt. Western Union, by contrast, has its stocks being traded at $20.71 per share, totaling in the market value of a staggering $8.5 billion.

A Small History

Ant Financial Services Group, one of China’s financial services conglomerates, had also made plans to acquire MoneyGram. This occurred back in 2017 but was subsequently abandoned after the agreement was made. This is due to the fact that the national security regulators of the US had started to push back against the idea, in fear that the China-based conglomerate would leverage its position in order to compromise the security of US citizens.

As it stands now, it’s unclear whether or not this deal will come to fruition. This is especially so due to the companies not having planned to reveal it to the public, but it leaking out regardless. Either way, the world’s at a very turbulent time, and with hope and luck, things will improve.