Green Dot Corporation, a prepaid debit card provider, announced on March 1, 2010 that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering of shares of its common stock. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined, according to the filing, but the filing indicated that the sale of Class A Common Stock would raise up to $150 million. As of October 2009, its total capitalization was listed as $53 million. In fiscal 2009, the gross dollar volume loaded to its general purpose reloadable card products was $4.7 billion, an increase of 66% over fiscal 2008.

J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley will act as joint book-running managers for the Monrovia, CA based company. Piper Jaffray and UBS Investment Bank will serve as co-managers for the proposed offering.

The filing said that Green Dot’s revenues had risen from $83 million in 2007 to $234 million in 2009. In 2009, operating revenue was $63 million, up from 1.2 million in 2007. The company said that it believes the growth will continue and it wants capital to expand its network, broaden its product line and acquire a bank and other complementary businesses, among other things. Green Dot was founded in 1999 as a Delaware corporation.

Walmart accounted for 64% of its operating revenue in the third quarter of 2009, and the next 3 largest partners made up 23% of its total operating revenues. It said that it did not expect that the percentage of operating revenue from Walmart to increase. The contracts with Walmart and the other three distributors expire between 2011 and 2013. The company said that a loss, or a disadvantageous renegotiation of terms with any of the four distributors, could cause results to suffer. 

Green Dot offers general spend reloadable prepaid debit cards in the U.S. Its cards and reload services are offered at approximately 50,000 retail stores on a proprietary technology platform called Green PlaNET, which enables real-time and secure transactions. The company views Green PlaNET as one of its primary competitive advantages.

Its general spend reloadable cards can be used anywhere that Visa or MasterCard are accepted, and can be reloaded with additional funds. As of October 2009, it had 2.4 million active cards. Distribution channels, in addition to Walmart, include Kroger, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, K-Mart, Meijer and 7-Eleven.