The announcement of Visa going public on March 19th of this month is probably the biggest buzz in the industry at the moment.

Visa is considered as the world’s leader in retail electronic payments service, I myself have a CIBC Visa Select card . Visa cards are accepted in more than 170 countries around the world. Visa does not lend money but rather charge a service fee to merchants for using their network. The company was originally called Visa International Service Association.

I had been watching for Visa’s IPO since early 2007 after Mastercard went public and finally in late 2007 they started to restructure and merge Visa Canada, Visa International, and Visa U.S.A. a into what is now called Visa Inc.

Offer Overview

• Issuer: Visa Inc.
• Ticker Symbol: “V” on the NYSE
• Shares Offered 406 Million Class A shares
• Price Range $37.00 to $42.00
• Dividend $0.105 per share. Quarterly starting June 2008 (roughly 1% yield)

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor and therefore am not recommending to buy any stocks discussed.

Why VISA IPO is attractive:

• Plastic will replace paper (cash and checks) in the near future. Developing countries such as China and India will soon be a slave to plastic just like us.
• Entry barriers into this business is very high.
• Visa has a very strong brand and will continue to experience growth in emerging markets such as Asia. The brand is as strong as MacDonalds, Sony, Coca Cola Company, Mercedes Benz.
• I believe John Patridge (Visa COO) is on the right track with such ideas as: Visa Gift Card, Card to Card transfers, ECommerce Solutions and Mobile transactions
• Double digit year to year growth in revenue

Update - According to Goldman Sachs the IPO has been moved ahead to Tuesday the 18th

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