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.

MoneyGram has also 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.”