Blocked transfer

摘要

"THE geopolitical environment has changed considerably since...a year ago." That was the explanation given this week by Alex Holmes, chief executive of MoneyGram International, a Dallas-based American money-transfer firm, for Ant Financial abandoning its $1.2bn deal to buy his firm. Ant, the online-payments affiliate of Alibaba Group, a Chinese e-commerce giant, had outbid Euronet, an American rival, in 2017 and secured the approval of MoneyGram's board for the acquisition. In normal times, Ant would have secured the prize.