螞蟻金服收購速匯金交易告吹

Ant Financial, the digital payments arm of Chinese ecommerce group Alibaba, has scrapped a merger with Dallas-based MoneyGram International, having failed to satisfy the US government that the deal posed no risk to America’s national security.

中國電商集團阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的關聯(lián)企業(yè)、數(shù)字支付公司螞蟻金服(Ant Financial)已放棄并購總部位于美國達拉斯的速匯金國際(MoneyGram International)，原因是未能讓美國政府相信該交易不會對美國國家安全構成威脅。

Ant announced a deal to buy MoneyGram for about $880m in cash almost a year ago, saying it would jump-start its global growth strategy. The Huangzhou-based company then saw off a competing bid from Euronet, a money-transfer rival based in Kansas, by improving its offer to $1.2bn.

將近一年前，螞蟻金服宣布了一項以約8.8億美元現(xiàn)金收購速匯金的交易，并表示將啟動其全球增長戰(zhàn)略。接著，這家總部位于杭州的公司把報價提高至12億美元，擊敗了總部位于堪薩斯州作轉賬業(yè)務的對手Euronet的競爭性報價。

But on Tuesday Ant and MoneyGram said that they had failed to obtain clearance for the deal from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an arm of the Treasury Department which vets inbound acquisitions for security implications.

但在周二，螞蟻金服和速匯金表示，它們的這筆交易未能獲得美國外國投資委員會(CFIUS)的放行。該委員會隸屬于美國財政部(Treasury Department)，負責審查外資收購是否影響國家安全。

Instead, the two sides will enter into a “strategic cooperation,” under which they will explore initiatives to provide customers in the US and Asia with cheap and quick money-transfer services.

這兩家公司將轉而進入一種“戰(zhàn)略合作”，共同探索為美國和亞洲顧客提供廉價快速轉賬服務的舉措。

Shares in MoneyGram, which had a market capitalisation of $722m at market close, fell as much as 10 per cent in after-hours trading.

速匯金的股價在盤后交易中一度下跌10%(股市收盤時，速匯金的市值為7.22億美元)。

Alex Holmes, chief executive of MoneyGram, said that despite the company’s “best efforts to work cooperatively” with the US government, it had become clear that Cfius would not greenlight the deal.

速匯金首席執(zhí)行官亞歷克斯•霍姆斯(Alex Holmes)表示，盡管公司“盡了最大努力去配合”美國政府，但已然變得明朗的是，CFIUS不會為該交易開綠燈。

“The geopolitical environment has changed considerably since we first announced the proposed transaction,” he said. “We are disappointed in the termination of this compelling transaction, which would have created significant value for our stakeholders.”

“自我們最初宣布這筆擬議的交易以來，地緣政治環(huán)境發(fā)生了很大變化，”他說，“我們對終止這一極具吸引力的交易感到失望，它本來會為我們的利益相關者創(chuàng)造巨大價值。”

The withdrawal comes as a number of Chinese investments targeting US companies have hit the buffers. Lawyers blame a rise in trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, and a slowdown in Cfius’ review process, caused largely by under-staffing.

在雙方退出這筆交易之際，中國有多項對美國企業(yè)的投資碰壁。律師們將此歸因于美中之間貿(mào)易緊張加劇、以及主要由人手不足導致的CFIUS審查流程放緩。

Late last month Cowen, a New York-based boutique investment bank, scrapped a $275m investment from CEFC China Energy, blaming delays and “uncertainty” in securing Cfius approval. Oceanwide’s $2.7bn acquisition of Genworth Financial, announced in October 2016, remains in the balance.

去年11月下旬，紐約精品投行Cowen以延誤和取得CFIUS批準的“不確定性”為由，放棄了來自中國華信能源(CEFC China Energy)的2.75億美元投資。中國泛海(China Oceanwide)在2016年12月宣布的以27億美元收購Genworth Financial的交易，仍然懸而未決。

"The deeper we get into this administration, the clearer it appears that scepticism about Chinese deals has sharply increased," said John Reynolds, a partner at Davis Polk in Washington.

“我們對這屆政府接觸得越深，就越清晰地感覺到，對涉華交易的疑慮已顯著加劇，”華盛頓達維律師事務所(Davis Polk)合伙人約翰•雷諾茲(John Reynolds)說。

Ant Financial, a spin-off from the Alibaba ecommerce group, has more than half of China’s fast-growing $5.5tn mobile payments market. Launched in 2004 as Alipay, a PayPal-type service to facilitate payment on Alibaba’s ecommerce platforms, it currently has 520m users.

作為電商集團阿里巴巴的關聯(lián)企業(yè)，螞蟻金服如今在中國快速增長的、規(guī)模達5.5萬億美元的移動支付市場中占據(jù)大半江山。2004年推出的支付寶(Alipay)是一種類似于PayPal的服務，旨在為阿里巴巴電商平臺上的支付提供便利。支付寶目前有5.2億用戶。

MoneyGram was Ant’s first major bid in the US, although it has bought a string of stakes in mobile payment companies in India, Thailand and South Korea over the past couple of years. Further afield it has signed agreements with dozens of banks and payments companies to give its customers the ability to pay for goods using its app. In the US, too, Alipay is accepted at about 175,000 locations and has partnerships with payment providers such as First Data and Verifone.

收購速匯金是螞蟻金服在美發(fā)起的首筆重大收購，盡管它在過去兩三年里已相繼收購了印度、泰國和韓國移動支付公司的股份。在更遠的地區(qū)，螞蟻金服已跟數(shù)十家銀行和支付公司簽約，使其用戶能用支付寶為他們的購物付款。在美國，也有約17.5萬個地點接受支付寶，支付寶已與First Data和Verifone等支付提供商建立了合作關系。

The failure of the MoneyGram deal is a big blow to Ant and a personal setback for Doug Feagin, a former Goldman Sachs partner who joined the company in June 2016 to spearhead its international growth efforts.

收購速匯金失敗對螞蟻金服而言是一次重大打擊，對道格•費金(Doug Feagin)個人而言也是一次挫折。費金曾為高盛(Goldman Sachs)合伙人，他于2016年6月加入螞蟻金服，負責該公司的國際發(fā)展努力。

In the merger announcement, Ant had made an unusually explicit offer to protect jobs at MoneyGram, using language that appeared to nod to the US government’s pledge to put the interests of American workers first and foremost. It is also likely to have made several proposals to safeguard the personal data of MoneyGram users, according to people familiar with the Cfius screening process.

在宣布并購的聲明中，螞蟻金服異常明確地提出要保護速匯金的工作崗位，其措辭似乎對美國政府所承諾的把美國工人利益放在首位表示了認同。熟悉CFIUS審查程序的人士表示，螞蟻金服可能還提出了保護速匯金用戶個人數(shù)據(jù)的幾項舉措。

But Euronet was quick to stir trouble, arguing that Ant’s takeover should not be cleared because of the proximity to US military bases of many of MoneyGram’s vendors. In an April interview with the Financial Times, Euronet’s chief executive Mike Brown said it was dangerous to hand over the data of military officials to a company whose investors include Chinese state-backed companies, at a time when China was routinely hacking the US government.

但Euronet很快挑起了麻煩，它辯稱由于許多使用速匯金的商戶距離美國軍事基地較近，因此不應批準螞蟻金服的這筆收購。在去年4月接受英國《金融時報》采訪時，Euronet首席執(zhí)行官邁克•布朗(Mike Brown)表示，在中國經(jīng)常對美國政府實施黑客攻擊之際，把軍官們的數(shù)據(jù)交給一家股東包括中國國資企業(yè)的公司是危險的。

Ant has paid MoneyGram a break fee of $30m, according to Tuesday’s statement.

根據(jù)周二的聲明，螞蟻金服向速匯金支付了3000萬美元分手費。