Visa IPO raises US$17.9b
Thursday, March 20, 2008
CREDIT card giant Visa raised more than US$17 billion on Tuesday in the largest share offering in US history, despite a growing financial crisis in the country.
Visa Inc sold 406,000,000 shares priced at US$44 each, raising nearly US$17.9 billion before it begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday under the ticker symbol "V", the San Francisco-based company said.
"Visa expects net proceeds from the offering, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses, to be approximately US$17.3 billion," the company said.
The price was higher than the expected US$38 to US$42 a share, a sign of the strong demand for Visa's stock.
Visa's IPO easily broke the US record of US$10.6 billion set by AT&T Wireless in 2000.
But it is well short of the world's largest IPO, a US$21.9-billion offering by Chinese bank ICBC, The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, on Shanghai and Hong Kong markets in October 2006.
Visa's IPO, led by JP Morgan Securities, counts Goldman Sachs, Citibank, HSBC Securities (USA), Merrill Lynch and UBS Investment Bank as joint bookrunners.AFP
Visa Inc sold 406,000,000 shares priced at US$44 each, raising nearly US$17.9 billion before it begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday under the ticker symbol "V", the San Francisco-based company said.
"Visa expects net proceeds from the offering, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses, to be approximately US$17.3 billion," the company said.
The price was higher than the expected US$38 to US$42 a share, a sign of the strong demand for Visa's stock.
Visa's IPO easily broke the US record of US$10.6 billion set by AT&T Wireless in 2000.
But it is well short of the world's largest IPO, a US$21.9-billion offering by Chinese bank ICBC, The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, on Shanghai and Hong Kong markets in October 2006.
Visa's IPO, led by JP Morgan Securities, counts Goldman Sachs, Citibank, HSBC Securities (USA), Merrill Lynch and UBS Investment Bank as joint bookrunners.AFP
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