Visa to buy Visa Europe in deal worth up to $19.2 billion
- By AFP -
- Nov 02, 2015
The upfront payment comprises 11.5 billion euros ($12.65 billion) in cash and preferred stock convertible into Visa Inc class A common stock valued at 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion).
Visa Inc and Visa Europe, a cooperative of European banks with over 500 million cards, were part of a global bank-owned network until 2007. Most of the units merged to form Visa Inc, which went public in 2008, leaving Visa Europe as a separate entity.
The deal is expected to give Visa more scale to compete with rival MasterCard Inc.
Visa, which also released fourth-quarter results on Monday, said it authorized a new $5 billion share buyback programme.
The company’s net income jumped to $1.51 billion, or $0.62 per diluted class A common share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, from $1.07 billion or $0.43 per share.