Visa IPO Largest in US History
Visa stock went public yesterday at $44 per share under the ticker V. With 406 million shares sold Visa effectively raised $17.86 billion to make it the largest initial public offering in US history.
The $44 price tag topped estimates of $37 to $42, and the stock shot up in price yesterday finishing the session at $56.50. Today Visa stock added another 14% to close at $64.35, putting the stock up some 46% since its debut yesterday.
The lead underwriters for the IPO were JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. JP Morgan is the largest bank behind Visa owning some 64.5 million shares for a total ownership percentage of 23.3%.
The previous US record for a single IPO was back in 2000 when AT&T was priced at $11 billion.
Are you at all surprised by this? I must say that I was. In an “economic slowdown” that’s being blamed largely on lending practices, this seems rather risky to me.