Visa, the biggest US credit card network, said in a regulatory filing it hopes to raise US$10 billion in an initial public offering.
Visa said on Friday it would deposit a portion of the company's proceeds from the IPO into an escrow account to pay settlements or judgments related to litigation settlements.
On Wednesday, Visa disclosed it will pay American Express Co up to US$2.07 billion to settle a lawsuit alleging the company illegally stifled competition. Under the plan, Visa said its member banks will absorb the costs of the settlement.
Despite a turbulent week on Wall Street, which ended with a major drop on Friday, Visa's IPO is hotly anticipated by investors. Visa is following in the footsteps of rival MasterCard, which has more than quadrupled since the company went public in May at US$39 a share.
As Wall Street struggles, Visa and MasterCard have secured the enviable role of processing the world's credit card payments but taking on none of the debt. The risk is instead held by the 25,000 banks in more than 200 countries that issue the cards.
On Oct. 31, MasterCard Inc reported that third-quarter profit jumped 63 percent, far exceeding Wall Street's expectations and driving shares to an all-time high.
Visa posted net income of US$771 million on operating revenue of US$3.73 billion for the nine months ended June 30, the Securities and Exchange Commission filing said.
Visa did not disclose the number or expected price range of the shares it plans to offer. The company said the total offering price was estimated solely to calculate its registration fee and may change.
Visa also did not indicate whether any stockholders would sell shares in the IPO. The company listed JPMorgan Chase as its largest stockholder, with 23.3 percent of its Class B shares. The filing said that Bank of America Corp owns 11.5 percent of Visa's Class B stock and National City Corp owns 8 percent of Class B shares.
JP Morgan Securities, Goldman Sachs, Banc of America Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, HSBC Securities, Merrill Lynch, UBS Securities and Wachovia Capital Markets are serving as the IPO's lead underwriters.
Visa made the disclosure in an S-1 filing with the SEC. Previously, Visa released the restructuring steps it would take to prepare for its IPO in S-4 filings.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
RSS