Visa Inc. (V), the world's largest provider of credit and debit cards, was named the "Renaissance Capital 2008 IPO of the Year" by the IPO research committee of Renaissance Capital. The selection was based on a study conducted by Renaissance Capital's analysts, who prepared investment research reports on the majority of companies that went public last year. Although IPO volume was low in 2008, Visa would have stood out from the pack in any year because of its globally recognized brand, dominant market position, long track record of growth and profitability, the record-breaking size of its IPO, and the relatively strong performance of the company's stock compared with global equity indices.

Visa was taken public by a phalanx of 41 underwriters led by J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs on March 18, 2008 and raised $17.9 billion in gross proceeds, making it comfortably the largest US IPO ever. Visa's stock rose 28% on its first day of trading and continued upward, at one point trading at more than double its $44/share IPO price, before the ongoing fallout of the financial crisis took its impact on the stock during the second half of the year. The stock still ended the year up 19% when most 2008 IPOs were down, making it the third best performing new issue of the year. more

Companies receiving Honorable Mention for "Renaissance Capital 2008 IPO of the Year" include: RiskMetrics (RMG), a leading provider of risk management and governance products and services, and CardioNet (BEAT), which provides wireless monitoring devices to detect cardiac arrhythmias.