On its first day of trading, VisaInc. overcame market jitters and sold 406 million shares at $44 apiece lateyesterday to raise nearly $18 billion and complete the most lucrative initialpublic offering in
The price topped the range of $37to $42 per share that Visa set three weeks ago, reflecting high demand to own apiece of a company that’s promising earnings growth of 20 percent despite acredit crunch that’s strangling the U.S. economy.
The most successful IPO in
The board, a veritable treasuretrove of former vice chairs, CEOs and presidents is led by Visa chairman andCEO Joseph Saunders, and is comprised of 10 independent directors:
- Business professorThomas Campbell of the Haas School of Business,
- Former Abbott Labs CFOGary Coughlan
- Mary B. Cranston,senior partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
- Francisco JavierFernandez-Carbajal, former CEO, corporate development division, GrupoFinanciero BBVA Bancomer
- Former Goldman SachsVice Chairman Suzanne Nora Johnson
- Seagram’s former vicechair and CFO, Robert W. Matschullat, chairs the audit and risk committee
- Cathy Elizabeth Minehan,former president and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of
- David J. Pang, formerCEO, Airport Authority of Hong Kong and a former corporate vice president atE.I. DuPont and former chairman, DuPont Greater China
- William Shanahan,former president, Colgate-Palmolive Company, appointed to chair thecompensation committee
- John Swainson,president, CEO and director of CA, Inc.