Ant Financial has entered into an Amended Merger Agreement with MoneyGram after the Chinese firm upped its bid for MoneyGram from $800 million to $1.2 billion.

Ant Financial increased its offer price to acquire all of the outstanding shares of MoneyGram, from $13.25 per share to $18.00 per share in cash, in order to fend off interest from US rival Euronet. The improved offer provides approximately $320 million in additional cash consideration to MoneyGram stockholders from the prior agreement. The MoneyGram board of directors has unanimously approved the Amended Merger Agreement.

Pamela Patsley, executive chairman of MoneyGram, said: “Throughout this process, our board of directors has remained laser-focused on maximizing value for MoneyGram stockholders, while taking into account price, the ability to complete a transaction and other important considerations. We are pleased to offer even more value to our stockholders through the amendment of our merger agreement with Ant Financial.”

The latest bid also tops a binding offer from Euronet Worldwide for $15.20 per share in cash. MoneyGram said that “after careful review and consideration in consultation, compared the relative merits of the increased offer reflected in the Amended Merger Agreement with Ant Financial to the binding offer from Euronet and unanimously determined that the Euronet proposal was not superior to the Amended Merger Agreement and that entering into the Amended Merger Agreement was in the best interests of MoneyGram stockholders”.

Following the completion of the transaction, MoneyGram will operate as an independent subsidiary of Ant Financial and retain its brand, management team, IT infrastructure and headquarters in Dallas, Texas. All of MoneyGram's current procedures and protections related to data security and personally identifiable information will remain intact.

Doug Feagin, president of Ant Financial International, said: “We look forward to joining forces with MoneyGram, which will add valuable cross-border remittance capabilities to the Ant Financial ecosystem, serving our more than 630 million users globally.

“We plan to grow the US-based team and create even greater opportunities for the MoneyGram community as we pursue our shared vision of global inclusive finance in an increasingly digital era.”

In separate news, MoneyGram has unveiled Sendbot – a convenient platform that allows US customers to send money transfers to any of its 350,000 global locations through Facebook Messenger. The bot features services such as “track a transfer” tool and location finder.

Youri Bebic, head of product innovation at MoneyGram, commented: “We are proud to introduce the MoneyGram Sendbot to offer our customers more choice and convenience when they need to send money. Innovation is the core to our business and the Sendbot is a true case of a hybrid product created to bridge the digital and physical worlds in order to promote financial inclusion.”

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