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Visa hopes to raise US$18.8 billion in unprecedented IPO

* AT&T Wireless raised US$10 billion * Blackstone Group raised US$4.13 billion * Virgin Mobile USA raised US$412 million

Visa Inc, the world's biggest electronic payment processing firm, unveiled plans on Monday for what could be a record US initial public offering (IPO), saying it hoped to raise US$18.8 billion.

If the San Francisco-based company's expectations are met, its planned IPO would easily overshadow the giant US$10 billion IPO of AT&T Wireless in 2000.

Visa, which processes payments for credit and debit cards, said it plans to sell at least 406 million shares to public investors as soon as possible. It expects its shares to be priced at between US$37 and US$42 per share.

The company unveiled its bid to transform itself from a private entity into a public group through a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Visa's planned IPO comes amid a slowdown in such public listings, due in part to an ailing US economy and a credit crunch sweeping the financial markets which have triggered sharp stock market declines in recent months.

Virgin Mobile USA's IPO in October last year raised around US$412 million and the Blackstone Group, one of America's biggest private equity firms, reaped around US$4.13 billion through a partial stock offering in June of last year.

Visa plans to launch its IPO amid a fundamental shift from paper-based payments, such as cash and checks, to card-based and other electronic payments. The company said this shift was being driven by "significant growth" in card-based payments globally.
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