For Visa International, going public is likely to pose a different set of challenges than those MasterCard Inc. confronted when it held its initial public offering last year.
Just how different those challenges might be became clearer when Visa announced it had named Joseph W. Saunders to serve as its executive chairman through the formation of the new company.
Visa framed Mr. Saunders' mandate as one centered on recruitment — especially the hiring of a chief executive officer and directors to lead the company's competitive charge after the IPO. (MasterCard retained its top management through its IPO.) But a closer look at Mr. Saunders' resume suggests the complexity of what else needs to be done.
In an interview Monday, the 60-year-old executive was circumspect, but he described the project ahead of him as "daunting" and "compelling."
While he repeated that recruitment was job one, he discussed the complexity of pulling together five different Visa units that had previously operated separately.
Unlike MasterCard, Visa is made up of an international body and six regional associations, each with its own management team. Further complicating matters, Visa Europe would not participate in the IPO and would remain a bank-owned association that licenses the name.
Mr. Saunders has had considerable experience operating units of parent companies and integrating businesses into larger organizations — including under trying circumstances.
In 2001 he took over Providian Financial Corp., then ailing from credit-quality problems, brought it back to health, and sold it to Washington Mutual Inc. in 2005. The process involved a series of rancorous interactions with Providian shareholders, some of whom felt they were ill served by the deal.
Mr. Saunders' career has earned him a reputation as a turnaround specialist.
In addition to Providian, he steered an expansion of the credit card businesses of Household International Inc. (now part of HSBC Holdings PLC) and FleetBoston Financial Corp. (now part of Bank of America Corp.).
Mr. Saunders also cut more than 800 jobs at Providian, as part of the makeover. Industry observers have said that Visa's expenses will have to come down as it becomes accountable to shareholders.
Mr. Saunders' experience at Wamu will likely prove applicable in another way.
Last year, its first full year in the card business, Wamu opened 3.2 million card accounts and nearly a third came from bank branches — a relatively new sales channel for the industry. Analysts generally consider these efforts a success.
A spokesman for Visa said the IPO most likely would take place in the first quarter of next year.
Michael Auriemma, the president of Auriemma Consulting Group Inc. of Westbury, N.Y., said Mr. Saunders would have to oversee a change of culture at the San Francisco association.
"I think he is highly skilled in working through transition and processes and affect change," Mr. Auriemma said. "That is critically important for a company that has been an association for its entire existence and now will be shifting to a for-profit, public ownership statute. It's more intense than for a say a for-profit company that is going public."
Mr. Auriemma said Visa has the advantage of learning from MasterCard's experience. When asked about this, Mr. Saunders said, "when you put something like that together, you look at the history of IPOs across the board."
Craig Maurer, an analyst at Soleil Securities, said Mr. Saunders has "seen two turnarounds that have gone very well and he is one of the veterans of the card business. I think he is a good person to lead them through the IPO. He knows what it's like to lead a card business that's a public company."
Wamu said it has promoted Anthony F. Vuoto to succeed Mr. Saunders as the president of card services.
Alan Gulick, a Wamu spokesman, said that Mr. Vuoto, who had been the senior vice president and chief financial officer of the card services unit, "has played an integral role in building the card services and we'll follow that strategy."
Wamu chairman Kerry Killinger said last month, "Card services has been a great addition to our company, contributing significantly to our net income in 2006, and we look forward to continued strong performance in 2007."
