螞蟻金服發展至今，其規模已經不亞于美國的PayPal，并且還在試圖在全球電商市場開辟更大的勢力范圍。

螞蟻金服是阿里巴巴集團旗下的一家支付業務公司，預計將于今年年底上市，其估計或將達到600到750億美元之間。螞蟻金服的最終目標是在未來十年內為20億人提供金融服務。為了實現這個目標，螞蟻金服正在積極謀求收購美國支付業務公司MoneyGram。隨著跨境支付日漸成為全球電商市場的“新常態”，螞蟻金服也加快了海外市場的擴張步伐。

此次交易一旦達成，MoneyGram遍布全球的35萬個網點將為螞蟻金服的全球擴張提供強大助力。

螞蟻金服本周一報出的12億美元的收購價，或許還不是此次“搶購大戰”的最終結果。今年一月，螞蟻金服就曾向MoneyGram報出8.8億美元的價格，成交似乎已經板上釘釘。然而到了3月份，美國的Euronet Worldwide公司突然跳出來橫插了一杠子，叫價10億美元要收購MoneyGram。

除了為防備美國公司“截胡”而報出了更高的收購價以外，螞蟻金服還采取了一系列舉措以在亞洲進行擴張。為了確保有足夠的財力在亞洲攻城掠地，該公司也采取了一系列的融資手段。比如最近，螞蟻金服與韓國、菲律賓、印度和泰國企業簽訂了一系列協議，它目前已高達6億的用戶群可能將迅速得到擴大。而相比之下，美國的PayPal只有1.97億名用戶。螞蟻金服的用戶已經是PayPal的三倍，而它現在才剛剛向亞洲以外的市場發力。

預計今年，全球支付市場的總收益將達到6000億美元左右。移動支付對于發展中國家和地區的意義猶為重大，因為這些地區的居民要么沒有多少錢，要么不容易接觸到傳統的銀行體系。螞蟻金服的電子支付平臺——支付寶已經成為了中國消費者的主要支付手段之一。而它在亞洲地區的普及也將從兩方面給阿里帶來顯著效益——不僅阿里和螞蟻金服的用戶群會顯著擴張，同時消費者使用螞蟻金服的頻率也會提高，因為消費者出境旅行時使用該服務進行結算會更加便利。

MoneyGram的網絡總共包含了240萬個銀行及移動賬戶。收購MoneyGram對阿里以上兩方面的目標都有裨益。這可能就是為什么螞蟻金服寧可將報價提高36%，也要將這家公司搶入旗下。

Euronet似乎不太可能繼續加價了。但螞蟻金服要想成功吃掉MoneyGram，仍然面臨兩方面的難題：首先，MoneyGram的股東必須要批準這項交易。其次，美國總統特朗普一直鼓吹在經貿問題上對華施壓，通過美國外資委員會這種管道，他對這樣的交易還是有否決權的。（財富中文網）

譯者：樸成奎

As big as PayPal is in the U.S., Ant Financial wants to have an even bigger footprint on e-commerce around the world.

The Chinese money-transfer company, which is the payment affiliate of Alibaba and is expected to go public later this year at an estimated value between $60 to $75 billion, is in the midst of an expansion to push its reach far beyond China as the cross-border remittance industry becomes woven deeper into the fabric of global commerce.

Ultimately, Ant intends to provide financial services for 2 billion within the next decade. The company’s recent move toward that end, its aggressive pursuit of MoneyGram, would open up avenues to 350,000 locations around the world.

Ant’s Monday offer of $1.2 billion for MoneyGram is the latest salvo in a bidding war for the money-transfer company. An $880 million deal in January looked like it was good to go, but then U.S.-based Euronet Worldwide swooped in with an unsolicited $1 billion offer for MoneyGram in March.

Ant’s newest bid follows a series of moves to expand its reach in Asia, as well as some fundraising to finance the strategy. The company has recently made a series of agreements with companies in South Korea, the Philippines, India, and Thailand that should greatly bump up its 600-million-person user base in Asia. By comparison, PayPal has 197 million total users. Ant already beats that by a factor of three and hasn’t even begun to crack open the market outside of Asia.

The remittance market, which is expected to bring in around $600 billion globally this year, is especially important in developing regions where residents don’t have a lot of money or access to traditional banking systems. Ant’s digital payment platform, Alipay, is already the primary player for making payments in China, but a bigger foothold in Asia would expand the company's reach in two ways. Not only would its user base grow, but customers would also employ the service more frequently since it would be easier for travelers to use it wherever they visit.

MoneyGram, whose network includes 2.4 million bank and mobile accounts, would serve both of those two goals well, which is likely why Ant felt it necessary to bump up its initial offer to acquire the company by 36%.

A sweetened Euronet bid is unlikely, but a successful merger still faces two hurdles: MoneyGram’s shareholders still have to approve the deal, and President Donald Trump, who likes to talk tough when it comes to China, has veto power over such a deal via the Committee on Foreign Investments in the U.S.