Remittance giant Western Union became the latest name linked with a buyout of rival MoneyGram, which has been the subject of numerous acquisition attempts in the last four years.

Bloomberg reported Western Union had made an offer for the company. No details or the potential price were floated for MoneyGram, which reported a sharp drop-off in transactions through physical collection channels during the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

Although both companies reported year-on-year declines in consumer remittances through their traditional methods in their respective Q1 results, both noted increased use of digital payments.

Notably, Western Union signed a number of deals with mobile money providers in the last two years as it looks to expand its reach into popular modern channels for receipt of international fund transfers.

Targeted
US-based MoneyGram has regularly been linked with takeover attempts over recent years.

In early 2017 Alipay-parent Any Financial fended off a rival bid from Euronet to secure the backing of MoneyGram shareholders for its $1.2 billion offer.

However, the deal eventually fell through after China-based Ant Financial conceded it was unlikely to get through US foreign investment authorities. In early 2019, MoneyGram executives reportedly began exploring a fresh attempt to find a buyer.