One of the years most touted and anticipated IPOs is certain to be that of Visa. The credit card company has filed for the IPO and investors were eagerly awaiting the debut. That was until yesterday. News from American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) that customers are having trouble paying back loans, and paying off monthly payments on their credit card debt, sent the stock down by 10%. MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) stock dropped more than 8% on the poor news as well.

With the stock market taking it on the chin, and now that bit of poor news in their industry, will we see the planned offering delayed? I think there is a fair chance that there will be a delay. The IPO market normally takes instance to recover from a market beating of that sort. Investors are normally a

bit gun-shy to pull the trigger on some new hi-tech issue. Visa on the other hand is not going to be your typical IPO. The company is obviously going to have a market cap in the tens of billions of dollars, and institutions will want a piece of the company. Still, that being said, they will want to have the same type of IPO that MasterCard had final year, and I would expect the underwriters to hold that offering until we see some continued market strength.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer has no positions in any stock mentioned as of 1/12/08

Original post by Aaron Katsman

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