Alibaba Affiliate Ant Financial Is Getting Close To Acquiring MoneyGram

If reports in the Wall Street Journal this morning are accurate, Jack Ma’s Ant Financial could soon be the proud owner of money-transfer service MoneyGram International Inc.

The Alibaba affiliate’s plans to buy out the Dallas-based firm reportedly come via anonymous sources speaking on the condition of anonymity with the WSJ.

So far, a price for the deal has not been circulated, though it will likely be fairly eye-catching. Shares of Dallas-based MoneyGram closed Wednesday at $11.88, giving the company a market value of $630 million.

Ant has been investing outside China strategically for some time — particularly in India and Southeast Asia as it looks for markets outside of mainland China where it is dominant. But Ant has also been looking at the U.S. for some time as well — last year, executives of Ant Financial visited Silicon Valley looking for potential investments and softening the ground for their widely anticipated IPO.

If a deal can be made, Ant Financial (currently China’s largest provider of financial services) gets a very significant and extremely useful U.S. foothold with wide-ranging instant access here in the states.  MoneyGram has thousands of outlets for moving money all over the world; they are also partnered with Wal-Mart Stores as the U.S. retailer’s money-transfer agent, and even have a bill pay program that lets clients pay everything from their electric bill to their mortgage.  They also have a large customer base and are a household name.

So far, Ant Financial has no official comment on the deal.

We’ll keep you posted as further details emerge.