The Biggest IPOs On Record

2. Visa – $17.9 Billion

Visa, the American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Foster City, California, United States. On October 11, 2006, Visa announced that some of its businesses would be merged and become a publicly traded company.

Visa sold 406 million shares at US$44 per share, raising US$17.9 billion in the largest initial public offering in U.S. history. And to the surprise Visa stock brought a return of 219 percent after the first year.

3. Enel S.p.A. - $16.5 Billion

Enel S.p.A. is an Italian electric utility company, the second-largest in Europe by market capitalization. Enel decided to go public in the late 90s after realizing the extent of indebts. Their decision appeared to be fruitful and collected $16.5 billion on the NYSE through their IPO.

In spite of the preliminary success, Enel never achieved that much growth. Investors were never convinced with the firm, and in 2007 they delisted from the NYSE.

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