By Cate Cadell
BEIJING, March 17 (Reuters) - Ant Financial Services Group, the world's largest financial technology company, is confident of closing the acquisition of U.S. money-transfer firm MoneyGram International Inc but says it has other options if the deal falls through, its top executive told Reuters.
The proposed $880 million deal is a first major step by Ant Financial, the payment affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, to expand its business overseas, as the firm, valued at $60 billion, sets itself up for a public offering.
"MoneyGram we view as very attractive because it gives a global network of remittance capability and kind of an omnichannel approach that connects us," Douglas Feagin, head of Ant's international strategy, said in a phone interview.
"That’s why we’ve entered the transaction and look forward to completing the deal with them."
But the plan faced a major hurdle this week as U.S. electronic payments firm Euronet Worldwide Inc launched a higher $1 billion bid for MoneyGram on Tuesday, arguing that its all-American deal would face less regulatory scrutiny than a lower bid by Ant.
Ant said earlier that it was making progress and on schedule to obtain all required regulatory and shareholder approvals, while MoneyGram has yet to decide whether it will recommend Euronet's higher offer to its shareholders.
Feagin, who had worked at Goldman Sachs Group Inc for more than two decades before joining Ant in 2016, declined to say whether Ant would raise its offer for MoneyGram, and added it was open to alternative tie-ups.
"There are a lot of digital payers that have come into the remittance market that are offering interesting services and capabilities, and a lot of those could be potentially interesting partners for us as well," he said.
"We see a range of other alternatives to MoneyGram if that's where we ended up."
MoneyGram, which was rescued through a $1.5 billion financing deal in which Goldman participated after the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008, has long dominated the global money transfer industry with its large network of retail locations.
The Dallas-based firm has about 350,000 outlets in retail shops, post offices and banks in nearly 200 countries and territories.
A combination of Ant's technological expertise and MoneyGram's brand could be a game-changer for the international payment industry, analysts say, with scope for more consumers to use online transfer services rather than taking cash to storefronts.
MoneyGram's rivals include Euronet and Western Union Co .
"The remittance business is one we see as quite helpful to our international business and strategy, so we definitely want to have that capability," Feagin said.