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re: VISA: SEC Approves Visa's Restructuring Plan
Thursday September 13, 6:50 pm ET
By Madlen Read, AP Business Writer
SEC OKs Plan to Combine Visa's 3 Global Businesses Into 1 Company Ahead of IPO


NEW YORK (AP) -- Visa, the nation's largest credit card network, on Thursday got the go-ahead from the Securities and Exchange Commission to combine its global operations -- a move it must make before it can go public.


The SEC received a registration statement in June from Visa, which outlined a plan to streamline Visa Canada, Visa International and Visa USA into a single private company, Visa Inc. Visa's West European business will continue to be owned by its member banks, which will own a minority stake in the parent company.

The boards of directors of Visa Canada, Visa International and Visa USA have already approved the restructuring, so now that the SEC has given it the green light, Visa can proceed with getting member approval. Once the combination is complete, the company can decide on the terms of its IPO, which is expected to happen early next year.

Going public will help the company raise more capital. It will also be a big boon to its member banks, which include Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co.

"We're grateful for the SEC's timely review of our registration statement, and we will immediately begin the member approval process in anticipation of closing the restructuring as soon as possible," said Visa's chairman and chief executive officer, Joseph W. Saunders, in a statement.

Under the terms of the restructuring, Visa will also establish a panel to consider how much money from its IPO should be set aside for legal matters. Visa and MasterCard have been sued by retailers claiming the companies illegally fix transaction fees.

Visa, which has 1.2 billion cards around the world, announced last October its intent to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. The San Francisco-based company's 775 million shares outstanding are owned by Visa's member banks, but about half will be sold to the public during its offering.

Visa is nearly 50 years old, making it the second-oldest of the four major credit card brands after American Express Co., but it will be the last to become a publicly traded company.

American Express has been a public company for 20 years. Over the last 52 weeks, it has traded between $52.60 and $65.89, and closed Thursday at $60.60.

MasterCard Inc. went public in May 2006 and its stock has quadrupled.

Discover Financial Services went public in June of this year, and has had a harder time gaining due to the summer's market volatility. Its stock closed $21.34, near the bottom of its recent range.



http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070913/visa_sec_restructuring.html?.v=1