Moving to the U.S. American money transfer company MoneyGram International said Tuesday that the U.S. government has rejected its acquisition by Ant Financial over national security concerns.

MoneyGram shares were down 8.5 percent at above 12 dollars in after-market trading. The collapse of the 1.2 billion US dollar deal also represents a blow for Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who owns Ant Financial together with Alibaba executives. The companies decided to terminate their deal after the U.S. government rejected the proposal. Ant Financial had argued that MoneyGram's data infrastructure would remain in the US, with personal information encrypted or held in secure facilities on U.S. soil.