On Nov. 2, 2015, Visa Inc. announced an agreement to fully acquire Visa Europe for a purchase price of €21.2 billion ($23.9 billion), consisting of an upfront payment of €16.5 billion ($18.6 billion) and a contingent consideration of up to €4.7 billion ($5.3 billion) payable after four years. Although this acquisition would introduce a substantial amount of debt to Visa's capital structure, we believe it won't weigh on our assessment of the company's financial risk profile because of ample debt capacity, and the acquisition would bolster Visa's already strong business profile. We are therefore affirming our 'A+' long-term and 'A-1' short-term issuer credit ratings on Visa. The stable outlook reflects our view that post-merger Visa will maintain leverage metrics consistent
