MasterCard Sells Stock in Big IPO

MasterCard Inc. priced its long-awaited initial public offering Wednesday at $39 a share, slightly below the market’s expectation.

At that price, the Purchase, N.Y.-based credit card association would raise $2.39 billion, making the IPO the largest by a U.S. company in two years. By comparison, Google Inc. raised $1.7 billion when it went public in 2004.

About 62 million MasterCard shares representing a 46% stake will begin trading today under the symbol MA. MasterCard had originally forecast its offering price at $40 to $43 a share.

Proceeds from the deal will be used mostly to redeem Class B shares, allowing the 1,400 banks that make up MasterCard’s association to begin unwinding their stakes.

MasterCard also will use about $650 million raised in the public flotation to fund a war chest to protect itself from mounting legal troubles stemming from the fees it charges retailers to process transactions.