Ripple Labs Inc. holds 8.6% equity stake in the cross-border payments firm MoneyGram. However, it is now selling a part of its stake to “realize some gains” on the initial investment it made.
United States, Nov. 30, 2020 /AlexaBlockchain/ – Ripple, one of the biggest names in FinTech industry, has announced that it will sell 4 million shares of the cross-border payments firm MoneyGram. The decision seems in part to be motivated by the surging MoneyGram share price and Ripple’s desire to cash out after buying the shares at a premium of $4.10 in 2019.
At 10:36 am GMT-5 on Nov. 27, shares of MoneyGram were down 7.34% at $6.88 on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. However, the stock has soared 234% year-to-date, rising from $2.06 on Jan. 2.
Ripple will earn nearly $27.52 million if it sold its 4 million MoneyGram shares at current market prices – an almost 70% gain. However, the sale is still in process.
A Ripple spokesperson said: “this is purely a judicious financial decision to realize some gains on Ripple’s MoneyGram International investment…” The spokesperson added that the sale “is in no way a reflection of the current state of our partnership.”
According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Nov. 27, Ripple owns an 8.6% equity stake in MoneyGram. That’s the equivalent of 6.24 million shares.