VISA to Go Public
Visa has announced that it has filed for IPO with the SEC, in the hopes of raising $10 billion, the company recently stated. Just exactly when this is to take place is still being decided, but an AP article, states that it should be sometime early next year. Visa is the world’s largest credit card company in terms of transactions made, network size, and cards in circulation. The AP article states that:
Visa’s payment processing network is by far the largest in the United States. Last year, the company processed 44 billion transactions totaling $3.2 trillion, according to Friday’s SEC filing. MasterCard processed 23.4 billion transactions totaling $1.9 trillion.
Visa makes most of its money from the fees it charges card issuers and merchants for using its network. During the first nine months of this year, the company earned $771 million on $3.7 billion in revenue.
The company has had some legal issues recently, having settled a lawsuit filed by American Express, and fighting another similar one filed by Discover Financial Services. Both suits were antitrust suits, claiming that the company tried to stifle competition. Visa agreed to pay AmEx $2.25 billion.
Investors who purchased MasterCard shares when they went public roughly a year and a half ago, have seen their investment go up almost 5X over that time period. MA’s shares were listed at about $40 when they hit the market, and recently closed over $200 for the first time last week. Given that bit of news, Visa will be a hot commodity whenever the company does finally IPO.
