Emirates Business interviews Pamela Patsley, CEO of MoneyGram, about its battle back from heavy sub-prime mortgage related investment losses to top line revenue growth of 44 percent in the first three quarters of 2009.
MoneyGram International experienced the whiplash of its risky investments much earlier than other companies.
The world's second-largest money transfer firm marked down its investment portfolio, including assets backed by sub-prime mortgages, by $860 million (Dh3.16 billion) in January 2008. Upon announcement, its stocks plunged nearly 50 per cent in a single day, erasing more than half a billion dollars of shareholder value. Two months later, it reported a total of $1.2bn impairments, further pulling the shares down.
To fill a capital hole brought on by failed investments, it sold a controlling stake to Thomas H Lee Partners and Goldman Sachs in a deal that values MoneyGram at a fraction of its value months before. A little less than two years thereafter, it reported $875.5m revenues in the first nine months of fiscal year 2009, 44 per cent higher than the same period in 2008.
"We had growth while the industry shrank," said Pamela H Patsley, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MoneyGram International, in an exclusive interview with Emirates Business. Patsley, who made her first trip to Dubai this year, was appointed Executive Chairman in January 2009.
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