Ripple exits 33% of its MoneyGram investment

Blockchain payments giant Ripple is cashing in on a third of its total stake in remittance provider MoneyGram for the first time since last year’s investment.

As revealed in a recent filing by the US Securities Exchange and the Commission, Ripple currently holds 6.22 million shares of MoneyGram along with a mandate, which allows the blockchain startup to purchase an additional 5.95 million shares. Adding all of this, Ripple holds a total of 12.2 million shares, which is 17 percent of MoneyGram’s outstanding shares.

Ripple is now selling up to 4 million shares from its MoneyGram holdings. This makes up about 33 percent of his total holdings in the remittance company.

The San Francisco-based company has authorized an unnamed third party to conduct the sale on its behalf by March 31, 2021.

“This is purely a judicious financial decision to make some gains on Ripple’s MGI [Moneygram International] investment and does not in any way reflect the current state of our partnership, ”a Ripple spokesperson told the press.

A profitable exit

Ripple bought stakes in MoneyGram last year, promising a total investment of $ 50 million in the company.

Additionally, MoneyGram has agreed to use XRP in foreign currency settlement for cross border payments. The remittance company has been using Ripple’s liquidity-on-demand (ODL) network for deals in Europe, Australia and the Philippines since June 2019.

During the initial investment, Ripple paid a 183% premium of $ 4.10 for each MoneyGram share. But the company is still getting out of a portion of its investment in profits: MoneyGram stock is publicly trading above $ 7.4, at press time.

“We will remain a significant shareholder of MoneyGram after the sale – they are clearly a leader in the global payments space in over 200 countries and territories,” the spokesperson added. “In just over a year, we’ve made incredible progress and look forward to continuing to partner with MoneyGram to transform cross-border payments.”