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Sard Verbinnen & Co. and Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher work the fallout from the collapse of China-based Ant Financial Services Group’s $1.2B bid for MoneyGram, money transfer operation.
The partners pulled the plug on the deal yesterday, citing inability to get the blessing of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US.
That rejection comes as tensions rise between China and the US, and the Trump Administration’s growing concern about the theft of American intellectual property.
In announcing the deal’s death, MoneyGram CEO Alex Holmes noted the “geopolitical environment has changed considerably” since the merger was announced Jan. 26, 2017.
The potential for China’s investment in the US appeared to be bright following the US election. Jack Ma, the Chinese Internet baron who controls Ant Financial, appeared with president-elect Trump at a Trump Tower photo-op and promised to create one million jobs in the US.
SV&C’s Paul Kranhold, Reze Wong and Andrew Duberstein represent Ant Financial in the US, while Rick Carew and Yin Ai handle China.
JFWBK’s Michael Freitag, Joseph Sala and Viveca Tress work the MoneyGram account.
WPP chief Cindy Rose is cutting up to 1,000 jobs by the end of the year, adding to the 11K jobs lost since the start of 2025, according to a report in the Financial Times.
WPP CEO Cindy Rose declares her stabilization plan is "firmly on track" as the company reports a 4.7 percent dip in 1H revenues.
FTI Consulting reported a 2.6 percent drop in Q2 strategic communications revenues to $100M, a shortfall largely due to a $7.4M decline in pass-through revenues.
Omnicom CEO John Wren reported a 7.2 percent rise in Q2 “core operations” to $6B and a 6.1 percent spurt on an organic basis.
Publicis Groupe’s H1 net revenues inched ahead by 1.1 percent to $8.3B. Organic growth hit the 4.7 percent mark.
