Visa Files Registration Notice for $10 billion IPO

In a bid to duplicate the success of its main rival, Visa filed documents late Friday officially signaling to the SEC its intentions to go public.

San Francisco-based Visa, owner of the largest credit card network in the nation, said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission registration statement that the IPO could fetch up to $10 billion, putting it in the Top 10 of all-time public offerings, according to Dealogic. Visa cautioned in the filing, however, that the $10 billion figure was preliminary and was used to calculate the registration fee to the SEC.

Visa did not reveal in its registration statement when it plans to go public, how many shares it plans to offer, or the expected share price. The offering will create a new publicly-traded entity, Visa Inc, that will combine Visa's U.S., international and Canadian operations. Another subsidiary, Visa Europe, will remain a membership organization and take a minority stake in Visa Inc.

The filing is the culmination of more than a year of speculation and anticipation as Visa initially informed the world of its intentions last October, a few months after rival MasterCard (NYSE: MA) went public. MasterCard’s IPO in May 2006 has been seen as highly successful, with its share price more than quadrupling since.

Visa said in the filing that it has generated net income of $771 million in the first nine months of this year with revenues of $3.73 billion. Last year, the company made $437 million on $3.91 billion in sales.

The registration statement came only two days after Visa announced it would pay another rival, American Express, $2.25 billion to settle an antitrust lawsuit (“Visa to Pay AmEx $2.25 Billion in Settlement,” Nov. 8).