Coming Soon! V for Visa IPO

Visa, the San Francisco-based credit card company, filed with Security and Exchange Commission Monday to sell its initial public offering (IPO) of 406 million shares to the public at an expected price of $37 to $42 a share. The electronic transaction processor expects to trade under ticker symbol V on the New York Stock Exchange within the next several weeks. The company expects to raise between $15 billion and $17 billion, which would make Visa the biggest IPO ever in the United States.

It may be noted that Visa’s main rival, the Purchase, N.Y.-based card processor MasterCard (MA), has been one of the great success stories in the IPO market in recent years, posting a 421% gain since its May 2006 offering.

The Visa offering will give public shareholders a 52% stake in the company. Visa's earnings in the quarter ended Dec. 31 were $424 million on revenue of $1.49 billion, as transactions processed rose 13% from a year earlier. For 2007, Visa reported an adjusted loss of $861 million on operating revenue of $5.2 billion.