蚂蚁金服加价也要收购的美国公司是何方神圣？

蚂蚁金服发展至今，其规模已经不亚于美国的PayPal，并且还在试图在全球电商市场开辟更大的势力范围。

蚂蚁金服是阿里巴巴集团旗下的一家支付业务公司，预计将于今年年底上市，其估计或将达到600到750亿美元之间。蚂蚁金服的最终目标是在未来十年内为20亿人提供金融服务。为了实现这个目标，蚂蚁金服正在积极谋求收购美国支付业务公司MoneyGram。随着跨境支付日渐成为全球电商市场的“新常态”，蚂蚁金服也加快了海外市场的扩张步伐。

此次交易一旦达成，MoneyGram遍布全球的35万个网点将为蚂蚁金服的全球扩张提供强大助力。

蚂蚁金服本周一报出的12亿美元的收购价，或许还不是此次“抢购大战”的最终结果。今年一月，蚂蚁金服就曾向MoneyGram报出8.8亿美元的价格，成交似乎已经板上钉钉。然而到了3月份，美国的Euronet Worldwide公司突然跳出来横插了一杠子，叫价10亿美元要收购MoneyGram。

除了为防备美国公司“截胡”而报出了更高的收购价以外，蚂蚁金服还采取了一系列举措以在亚洲进行扩张。为了确保有足够的财力在亚洲攻城掠地，该公司也采取了一系列的融资手段。比如最近，蚂蚁金服与韩国、菲律宾、印度和泰国企业签订了一系列协议，它目前已高达6亿的用户群可能将迅速得到扩大。而相比之下，美国的PayPal只有1.97亿名用户。蚂蚁金服的用户已经是PayPal的三倍，而它现在才刚刚向亚洲以外的市场发力。

预计今年，全球支付市场的总收益将达到6000亿美元左右。移动支付对于发展中国家和地区的意义犹为重大，因为这些地区的居民要么没有多少钱，要么不容易接触到传统的银行体系。蚂蚁金服的电子支付平台——支付宝已经成为了中国消费者的主要支付手段之一。而它在亚洲地区的普及也将从两方面给阿里带来显著效益——不仅阿里和蚂蚁金服的用户群会显著扩张，同时消费者使用蚂蚁金服的频率也会提高，因为消费者出境旅行时使用该服务进行结算会更加便利。

MoneyGram的网络总共包含了240万个银行及移动账户。收购MoneyGram对阿里以上两方面的目标都有裨益。这可能就是为什么蚂蚁金服宁可将报价提高36%，也要将这家公司抢入旗下。

Euronet似乎不太可能继续加价了。但蚂蚁金服要想成功吃掉MoneyGram，仍然面临两方面的难题：首先，MoneyGram的股东必须要批准这项交易。其次，美国总统特朗普一直鼓吹在经贸问题上对华施压，通过美国外资委员会这种管道，他对这样的交易还是有否决权的。（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

As big as PayPal is in the U.S., Ant Financial wants to have an even bigger footprint on e-commerce around the world.

The Chinese money-transfer company, which is the payment affiliate of Alibaba and is expected to go public later this year at an estimated value between $60 to $75 billion, is in the midst of an expansion to push its reach far beyond China as the cross-border remittance industry becomes woven deeper into the fabric of global commerce.

Ultimately, Ant intends to provide financial services for 2 billion within the next decade. The company’s recent move toward that end, its aggressive pursuit of MoneyGram, would open up avenues to 350,000 locations around the world.

Ant’s Monday offer of $1.2 billion for MoneyGram is the latest salvo in a bidding war for the money-transfer company. An $880 million deal in January looked like it was good to go, but then U.S.-based Euronet Worldwide swooped in with an unsolicited $1 billion offer for MoneyGram in March.

Ant’s newest bid follows a series of moves to expand its reach in Asia, as well as some fundraising to finance the strategy. The company has recently made a series of agreements with companies in South Korea, the Philippines, India, and Thailand that should greatly bump up its 600-million-person user base in Asia. By comparison, PayPal has 197 million total users. Ant already beats that by a factor of three and hasn’t even begun to crack open the market outside of Asia.

The remittance market, which is expected to bring in around $600 billion globally this year, is especially important in developing regions where residents don’t have a lot of money or access to traditional banking systems. Ant’s digital payment platform, Alipay, is already the primary player for making payments in China, but a bigger foothold in Asia would expand the company's reach in two ways. Not only would its user base grow, but customers would also employ the service more frequently since it would be easier for travelers to use it wherever they visit.

MoneyGram, whose network includes 2.4 million bank and mobile accounts, would serve both of those two goals well, which is likely why Ant felt it necessary to bump up its initial offer to acquire the company by 36%.

A sweetened Euronet bid is unlikely, but a successful merger still faces two hurdles: MoneyGram’s shareholders still have to approve the deal, and President Donald Trump, who likes to talk tough when it comes to China, has veto power over such a deal via the Committee on Foreign Investments in the U.S.