Owning Visa Priceless

Mar. 17, 2008 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) --

NEW YORK (AP) - As Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) readies for what promises to be the largest initial public offering in U.S. history on Wednesday, analysts generally feel it won't do much to jolt a slumbering IPO market.'We have an IPO market anomaly with Visa,' said David Menlow, president of IPOfinancial.com. 'This is a singular seismic event that is not going to re-ignite the market as far as instill confidence or bring more deals into the system.'Francis Gaskins, president of IPODesktop.com, agreed.'It's a unique, one-time event,' he said. 'All eyes will be on Visa and then it's over.'The San Francisco-based credit card processor is offering a whopping 406 million shares, which it expects to price between $37 and $42, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The underwriters have been given the option to buy up to an additional 40.6 million shares to cover any overallotments.In total, the IPO could raise up to nearly $19 billion -- surpassing current record holder AT&T (NYSE:SBT) (NYSE:T) Wireless, which raised $10.6 billion when it went public in 2000.
The latest market shake-up, driven by JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM PRH) (NYSE:JPM PRX) (NYSE:JPM PRK) (NYSE:JPM PRJ) (NYSE:JPT) (NYSE:JPM) & Co.'s $2-per-share buyout of struggling investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. (NYSE:BSC) , could cause the IPO to price at a slight discount, but should have little effect overall, analysts said.'I don't foresee any reduction in demand for Visa based on the takeover,' said Scott Sweet, managing director of research firm IPO Boutique.'It might be a dollar or two per share short of what they thought they could get last week, but what is happening in the market today does not mean that Visa is not a very strong business,' said Nicholas Einhorn, an analyst at Renaissance Capital's IPOHome.com.