After its scuppered deal to buy MoneyGram, the Chinese consumer finance giant's global expansion plans are back on track with an agreement to purchase the British payments group.
Alibaba's Ant Financial Group, formerly known as Alipay, has agreed to buy U.K.-based currency exchange giant WorldFirst in a deal worth about $700 million, WorldFirst said in a note to customers late Thursday, Reuters reported.
In the note, WorldFirst CEO Jonathan Quinn said that the company «will continue to operate as a UK-headquartered and regulated business with global operations.»
WorldFirst allows users and businesses to make international transfers between banks at prices lower than banks. According to the company, it has transferred over £70 billion ($90 billion) for customers since 2004, with more than 1 million transfers made each year.
Overseas Expansion
Ant Financial, China's biggest online payment platform with an estimated 550 million users, is an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which owns one-third of the company. In June 2018, it raised $14 billion in what was the single biggest fundraising round globally by a private company, reaching a valuation of about $150 billion.
Ant Financial has attempted to expand to overseas markets popular with Chinese tourists by making acquisitions and establishing strategic partnerships with payment firms abroad, particularly in Southeast Asia, where it has invested in Ascend Money (Thailand), and Mynt (Philippines). In 2017, Ant Financial invested $200 million in a fintech project belonging to Kakao, South Korea's dominant messaging service, and later that year, it agreed to purchase U.S.-based remittance provider MoneyGram in a deal worth $1.2 billion, but the deal was blocked by regulators on national security grounds.
The company has not set out a timeline for its widely expected IPO in Hong Kong and Mainland China.
