The bidding war for U.S. payments company MoneyGram is heating up.
On Monday (March 20), MoneyGram’s board of directors said the latest offer from Euronet Worldwide, which it proposed last weekend to buy MoneyGram for $15.20 per share in cash, could result in a superior proposal.
Euronet’s offer topped the $13.25 per share offer from Ant Financial, Reuters confirmed, a deal that MoneyGram agreed to back in January.
However, it’s been reported that MoneyGram’s board is continuing to recommend the offer from Ant Financial as opposed to that of Euronet. If MoneyGram pulls out of its deal with Ant, however, it will cost the company. MoneyGram faces a $30 million termination fee if it abandons the deal for another bid.
People familiar with the matter disclosed that MoneyGram has also offered to share confidential company data with Euronet, following Euronet’s $1 billion bid to acquire the company, in order to help Euronet strengthen its offer.
Because Euronet and MoneyGram are direct competitors in some arenas, the former firm will have to agree to a non-disclosure agreement before it carries out its full due diligence on MoneyGram. That agreement could take the better part of the the first half of this week to iron out.
All in all, it is expected that Euronet will need about a week to go through MoneyGram’s financials before finalizing the offer. MoneyGram will also be receiving some confidential data from Euronet so it can better analyze the possibility of the deal being scuttled on antitrust issues.
Should MoneyGram declare Euronet’s bid superior, Ant Financial will have four business days to decide whether it wants to improve its offer. As of yet, none of the three firms involved have any new comment to offer.
According to Reuters, Euronet has argued that its deal with MoneyGram would potentially create a more valuable business due MoneyGram’s focus on large retailers combined with Euronet’s position with independent agents and its existing payment solutions.
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