Visa IPO

Visa proposes would would be richest U.S. IPO
By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Visa Inc. has set its sights on generating the largest proceeds ever raised in a U.S. initial public offering, proposing Monday a whopping $18.8 billion deal that will likely begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange within the next several weeks.
The San Francisco card giant plans to offer 446.6 million Class A common shares, including 40.6 million shares for underwriters in a traditional "green shoe" portion of the deal.
At the top of the proposed pricing range of $37 to $42 a share, Visa's IPO would raise some $18.76 billion, easily eclipsing the $10.6 billion raised by AT&T Wireless in 2000 as the richest-ever U.S. IPO.
Visa plans to trade on the NYSE under the symbol V, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing made early Monday.
Visa's total market capitalization will weigh in at $38 billion with a total of 967 million shares outstanding.
Details of the IPO could help stoke bullish sentiment to start the trading week as Visa stakes its future as a public company despite turmoil in the financial sector and bearish conditions in the stock market this year.
It's also debuting on the heels of big gains by MasterCard Inc. (MA:
mastercard inc cl a
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Last: 203.48-1.00-0.49%4:01pm 02/22/2008Delayed quote data

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MA 203.48, -1.00, -0.5%) , which has doubled to $200 from $100 in the past year.
For 2007, Visa reported an adjusted loss of $861 million on operating revenue of $5.2 billion. For the seasonally important three months ended Dec. 31, Visa's net income amounted to $424 million on revenue of $1.5 billion.
AT&T Wireless held the No. 1 slot with $10.6 billion raised in 2000, followed by $8.7 billion for the 2001 IPO by Kraft Foods (KFT:
kraft foods inc cl a
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Last: 31.37+0.53+1.72%4:02pm 02/22/2008Delayed quote data

Sponsored by:
KFT 31.37, +0.53, +1.7%) , $5.5 billion for United Parcel Service (UPS:
united parcel service inc cl b
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Last: 71.89-0.01-0.01%4:01pm 02/22/2008Delayed quote data

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UPS 71.89, -0.01, 0.0%) in 1999, $4.6 billion for CIT Group (CIT:
CIT Group Inc
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Last: 24.73+0.91+3.82%4:02pm 02/22/2008Delayed quote data

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CIT 24.73, +0.91, +3.8%) in 2002 and $4.4 billion for Conoco in 1998.
Blackstone Group (BX:
blackstone group l p com unit ltd
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Last: 15.72-0.21-1.32%4:01pm 02/22/2008Delayed quote data

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BX 15.72, -0.21, -1.3%) raised $4.1 billion last year, the richest IPO since the $2.8 billion offering launched by Genworth Financial (GNW:
genworth finl inc com cl a
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Last: 23.11+0.31+1.36%4:03pm 02/22/2008Delayed quote data

Sponsored by:
GNW 23.11, +0.31, +1.4%) in 2004.
While mega-sized deals have been relatively rare in the U.S., other countries have seen major IPOs.
Petro China (PTR:
petrochina co ltd sponsored adr
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Last: 151.07+3.06+2.07%4:02pm 02/22/2008Delayed quote data

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PTR 151.07, +3.06, +2.1%) , for one, raised $9 billion in its stock-market debut last year as it eclipsed Exxon Mobil (XOM:
exxon mobil corp com
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Last: 87.17+0.25+0.29%4:01pm 02/22/2008Delayed quote data

Sponsored by:
XOM 87.17, +0.25, +0.3%) in market cap.