Can Visa’s IPO Help Lift Its Partner Banks Out of the Economic Doldrums?

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace) -- Like the prettiest debutant at the biggest spring ball, Visa Inc (NYSE: V) launched its Initial Public Offering (IPO) on Wednesday to a gaggle of swooning investors.

“The company sold 406 million shares at a price above its expected $37 to $42 range, raising a total of $17.86 billion. That makes it the largest U.S. IPO ever, topping a $10.6 billion offering from AT&T Wireless in 2000,” reported The Wall Street Journal in an online article.

Analysts are expecting that the credit card giant will generate nearly $19 billion for the approximately 447 million shares of its Class-A common stock. In an economy that is threatened by rising consumer debt and spending, the Visa IPO is ironically the deal that is giving banks and investors some hope of a turnaround.

Since its rival MasterCard Inc (NYSE: MA) went through an IPO of its own two years ago, raising $2.4 billion, investors have been impatient for Visa to make a similar move. Those with much to gain from the deal include the big investment banks that have been feeling the squeeze thanks to the ongoing credit crisis, a crisis that just claimed the venerable investment-banking firm The Bear Stearns Companies Inc (NYSE:BSC) as its most prominent victim.

NewsVisual created an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map of those banks that are participating in the IPO as underwriters and that hope to reap hefty returns from deal fees and company ownership.

As illustrated in this Knowledge Map, nearly 40 banks will be involved in the deal. The underwriters include JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS), Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS), UBS AG (NYSE: UBS), Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C), Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE: WFC), and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (NYSE: LEH).

To see the details of these connections, click here for an interactive and fuller version of this IntellectSpace Knowledge Map.

(Note: the information contained and presented in Knowledge Maps is public information from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America).