SAN FRANCISCO — Visa raised $17.9 billion late Tuesday to complete the largest initial public offering in U.S. history and help prop up the wobbly financial services industry.
The world’s largest processor of credit and debit cards sold 406 million shares at $44 apiece to eclipse the previous U.S. record IPO of $10.6 billion set by AT&T Wireless eight years ago. The IPO price topped the range of $37 to $42 per share that Visa set three weeks ago just before its executives began meeting with institutional investors and analysts to drum up interest.
If investment bankers exercise an option on another 40.6 million shares, Visa’s IPO will end up raising $19.7 billion before expenses.
Visa shares, under the “V” ticker symbol, are scheduled to begin trading today on the New York Stock Exchange. The San Francisco-based company will debut with a market value of about $36 billion.
More than $10 billion of the IPO proceeds are being used to buy back shares owned by the banks that have helped build Visa in the past 50 years. It is expected to help banks strengthen their balance sheets as they write off billions of dollars in loans amid the worst housing slump since the 1930s.
