Ant Financial, a Chinese payments company and affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba is planning to resubmit for the third time an application seeking approval for its takeover deal of United States payments firm, MoneyGram International Inc.
MoneyGram, the money transfer service accepted a $1.2 billion takeover offer from Ant Financial in April.
China’s Ant Financial an affiliate of Alibaba Holdings and which operates Alipay the biggest online payment system is seeking to buy U.S. MoneyGram International.
The two companies have already refiled for clearance from Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) – a secretive government body responsible for ruling on whether or not deals with foreign entities pose a risk to U.S. national security.
A statement from Ant Financial said, “We are not commenting on the CFIUS process, but we are continuing to work with the various regulatory agencies and remain focused on closing the transaction by the end of the year.”
Ant Financial’s latest attempt for approval would be its third as the maximum time of 75 days for assessing such applications nears completion.
Ant Financial company logo.
A CFIUS refile indicates increased government scrutiny and more deals have been resubmitted to CFIUS since the inauguration of President Trump in January. By July 20, the body had objected to at least nine acquisitions of U.S. companies by foreign buyers.
Another acquisition of U.S. fund management firm, SkyBridge by Chinese conglomerate HNA Group is still pending regulatory approval. On July 28, SkyBridge said that it was hopeful the deal would get the go-ahead within 45 days.
A CFIUS filing is a voluntary procedure but the U.S. President has the right to block any non-CFIUS approved deal on the basis of national security.
SkyBridge Capital owned by Anthony Scaramucci is also pending regulatory approval for sale to Chinese conglomerate HNA Group. Credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking
Ant Financial finalized its deal to buy Dallas-based MoneyGram in April, after it sweetened its bid by over a third to beat a rival offer from U.S-based Euronet Worldwide Inc.
Ant Financial which operates Alipay, China’s biggest online payments platform is a financial affiliate of Alibaba Group, which also owns the media outlet South China Morning Post.
MoneyGram, and CFIUS could not immediately be reached for comment.
Ant Financial’s plans were earlier reported by Bloomberg.
A Reuters report. Further editing by Manyika Review.
