Withdrawing makes more financial sense. That would leave Ant, which is planning an initial public offering, to justify MoneyGram to its own potential new investors.
Deal success is not assured either. Ant may have received antitrust approval, but has two other significant regulatory hurdles. First, it must clear the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the opaque group that reviews takeovers for national-security concerns. Ant also needs licenses or change-of-control approval from all U.S. states in which MoneyGram operates as well as from national regulators around the world.
That’s what caused Anbang’s Fidelity deal to falter, Reuters reported on Sunday. Euronet itself emphasized how its own offer provides “a clear and significantly more certain path” to closing because of the consents Ant must obtain. By that logic, rather than overpaying, Euronet should try to win by disqualification.
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