Hot Financial IPOs: Vantiv, BATS

NEW YORK (TheStreet -- The payment processors have been hot properties this year, and now a new name is set to make its public debut: Vantiv (VNTV).

The Cincinnati-based company, which processes more than 11.4 billion ATM and POS transactions and almost $400 billion in debit card and credit card sales each year, is seeking to raise $500 million through the sale of 29.4 million shares at $16-$18 each.

Vantiv plans to use the proceeds of the offering to pay down debt and reduce interest expenses. At the mid-point of its pricing range, Vantiv shares would have a price-to-sales ratio of 2.2X, in line with competitors like Fiserv (FISV) and Global Payments (GPN).

In addition to those companies, Vantiv faces competition on the merchant side from Bank of America (BAC), Chase Paymentechand First Data (FDC). In its financial institution service business, it also competes with First Data, Fiserv and also Visa (V).

If those competitors weren't daunting enough, new players to the field include PayPal and Google (GOOG). These companies have better name recognition among customers.

Vantiv though offers clients a single technology platform that it believes provides a competitive advantage. It can deliver new applications to its customers quickly and in large scale through this platform, which also makes its different products easy to connect to and use.

Once a division of Fifth Third Bank (FITB), Vantiv was spun off and launched as a joint venture between Fifth Third and Advent. It was only last year that the company changed its name from Fifth Third Processing to Vantiv.

In the opinion of IPO Desktop President Francis Gaskins: "Vantiv seems like a good buy at the price range mid-point to hold for a month or so after the 40-day analyst report quiet period ends."

Another financial offering on the calendar this week is BATS Global Markets (BATS), which is looking to raise $107 million through the sale of 6.3 million shares priced at $16-$18 each. BATS is the third largest exchange operator in the U.S. behind NYSE Euronext (NYX) and Nasdaq OMX Group (NDAQ), but is still much smaller.

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