Visa IPO raises close to $18 billion

Visa opened today publicly and started trading at $59.50. The IPO price was $44 that raised over $17 billion and that was done late yesterday.

This is one of the most anticipated IPOs and definitely the largest one since AT&T.

Why do I think this is a good buy? Mastercard, the smaller of the credit card financiers has quadrupled since it IPO'd in 2006. With the ARMs taking their toll on the largest banks, the fifteen underwriters all have stake in Visa. This will not only boost the banking industry, but Visa also doesn't take a hit from ARMs since they do strictly transactions and doesn't work into financial services. This is also why Discover and American Express have been suffering since they also are not strictly credit card networks.

Disclaimer: I am a shareholder of Visa.