Brazil’s VisaNet leads global IPOs

Visa Inc.’s Brazilian affiliate plans to sell stock in the world’s biggest initial share sale in a year, seeking to tap investor demand in a nation where credit card use is growing more than 20 % annually. Shareholders of Cia. Brasileira de Meios de Pagamentos, the Sao Paulo-based processor of payments for the largest credit card network, aim to raise 5.7 billion reais to 7.2 billion reais ($2.9 billion to $3.6 billion) in the June 25 sale. San Francisco-based Visa, which owns 10 % of VisaNet, raised $17.9 billion in its March 2008 initial public offering, a U.S. record. VisaNet’s offering of up to 477.7 million shares probably will price at the high end of the 12 reais to 15 reais range because of prospects Brazil’s credit card market, with 224 billion reais in purchases, will keep expanding. Clients who in previous IPOs set aside 30,000 reais to buy shares are reserving 100,000 reais for the VisaNet deal, said Renato Bandeira de Mello, operations manager at Futura Corretora in Sao Paulo. The IPO is the first in Brazil since Rio de Janeiro-based OGX’s record offer. The success of the VisaNet sale could spur other IPOs in the country this year, said Alberto Kiraly, a vice president at the National investment Bank Association in Sao Paulo. Redecard SA, the Sao Paulo-based processor of payments for New York-based MasterCard Inc., has gained 15 % from its July 2007 offering price, compared with an 11 % drop in the Bovespa index since the shares started trading. VisaNet’s other shareholders include Osasco, Brazil-based Banco Bradesco SA, Brazil’s second largest non-government bank, the Brazilian unit of Santander, Spain-based Banco Bradesco SA and Brasilia-based Banco Bradesco SA, the largest federally controlled lender. Brazilian regulators are seeking to force Redecard and VisaNet to sell assets to boost competition. The move would follow a central bank study in March that recommended changes to Brazil’s credit card market to make it more efficient and eliminate flaws in the system. VisaNet said in an e-mailed statement that it can’t comment ahead of its IPO. Redecard said it has directed its comments to the Brazilian Association of Credit Card Companies, which will submit its opinion to the government after compiling companies’ views.