Western Union to Acquire Finint S.r.l., a Leading Agent in Europe

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire Finint S.r.l., one of its leading money transfer network agents in Europe.

“It represents a sound international investment, and in combination with our previous European acquisitions allows us to improve processes and productivity through centralized support functions.”

Finint manages more than 10,000 subagent locations across Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Western Union currently owns 30 percent of the company and will acquire the remaining 70 percent. The transaction complements Western Union’s acquisitions of leading European network agents FEXCO in 2009, and Angelo Costa S.r.l. earlier this year.

“The acquisition of Finint is another step in advancing our European strategies to grow the money transfer business and introduce new products and services,” said Hikmet Ersek, Western Union’s President and CEO. “It represents a sound international investment, and in combination with our previous European acquisitions allows us to improve processes and productivity through centralized support functions.”

Finint Chief Executive Officer Paolo Fiorelli added, “We have been with Western Union for more than 16 years now and over this period we built a terrific partnership. Western Union is a great business, a great brand and a great company to work with. It is because of this very fruitful relationship that Finint became one of the largest independent Western Union agents in the world. At this time, the acquisition makes a lot of strategic sense and Western Union will have our full support during transition.”

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and satisfaction of closing conditions, and is expected to close in the second half of 2011. The Company expects the acquisition to be slightly accretive to earnings in 2011 due to gains anticipated to be recorded on the revaluation of its previous ownership interest, partially offset by integration costs.

About Western Union

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a leader in global payment services. Together with its Vigo, Orlandi Valuta, Pago Facil and Western Union Business Solutions branded payment services, Western Union provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, to send payments and to purchase money orders. The Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded services are offered through a combined network of approximately 455,000 agent locations in 200 countries and territories. In 2010, The Western Union Company completed 214 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, moving $76 billion of principal between consumers, and 405 million business payments. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.

WU-F, WU-G

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Possible events or factors that could cause results or performance to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements include the following: changes in immigration laws, patterns and other factors related to migrants; our ability to adapt technology in response to changing industry and consumer needs or trends; our failure to develop and introduce new products, services and enhancements, and gain market acceptance of such products; the failure by us, our agents or subagents to comply with our business and technology standards and contract requirements or applicable laws and regulations, especially laws designed to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and anti-competitive behavior, and/or changing regulatory or enforcement interpretations of those laws; the impact on our business of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the rules promulgated there-under; changes in United States or foreign laws, rules and regulations including the Internal Revenue Code, and governmental or judicial interpretations thereof; changes in general economic conditions and economic conditions in the regions and industries in which we operate; political conditions and related actions in the United States and abroad which may adversely affect our businesses and economic conditions as a whole; interruptions of United States government relations with countries in which we have or are implementing material agent contracts; changes in, and failure to manage effectively exposure to, foreign exchange rates, including the impact of the regulation of foreign exchange spreads on money transfers and payment transactions; our ability to resolve tax matters with the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities consistent with our reserves; failure to comply with the settlement agreement with the State of Arizona; liabilities and unanticipated developments resulting from litigation and regulatory investigations and similar matters, including costs, expenses, settlements and judgments; mergers, acquisitions and integration of acquired businesses and technologies into our Company, and the realization of anticipated financial benefits from these acquisitions; failure to maintain sufficient amounts or types of regulatory capital to meet the changing requirements of our regulators worldwide; deterioration in consumers' and clients' confidence in our business, or in money transfer providers generally; failure to manage credit and fraud risks presented by our agents, clients and consumers or non-performance by our banks, lenders, other financial services providers or insurers; any material breach of security of or interruptions in any of our systems; our ability to attract and retain qualified key employees and to manage our workforce successfully; our ability to maintain our agent network and business relationships under terms consistent with or more advantageous to us than those currently in place; failure to implement agent contracts according to schedule; adverse rating actions by credit rating agencies; failure to compete effectively in the money transfer industry with respect to global and niche or corridor money transfer providers, banks and other money transfer services providers, including telecommunications providers, card associations, card-based payment providers and electronic and internet providers; our ability to protect our brands and our other intellectual property rights; our failure to manage the potential both for patent protection and patent liability in the context of a rapidly developing legal framework for intellectual property protection; cessation of various services provided to us by third-party vendors; adverse movements and volatility in capital markets and other events which affect our liquidity, the liquidity of our agents or clients, or the value of, or our ability to recover our investments or amounts payable to us; decisions to downsize, sell or close units, or to transition operating activities from one location to another or to third parties, particularly transitions from the United States to other countries; changes in industry standards affecting our business; changes in accounting standards, rules and interpretations; significantly slower growth or declines in the money transfer market and other markets in which we operate; adverse consequences from our spin-off from First Data Corporation; decisions to change our business mix; catastrophic events; and management's ability to identify and manage these and other risks.