This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Find out more here.  
  • Delicious




Reuters Announces Plans To Float Instinet

Philip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

12 February 2001

Reuters, the international news and information agency, announced recently that its electronic brokerage subsidiary, Instinet, has filed with the SEC for an Initial Public Offering later this year. The electronic trading platform hopes to raise as much as $450 million based on an offering of 10-20% of the company, and said it would use some of the money to repay approximately $200 million in debt back to Reuters.

Instinet is the world's largest electronic agency securities broker, (which are more commonly referred to as ECNs, or Electronic Crossing networks) and trades in 40 securities markets with membership of 20 exchanges in North America, Europe, and Asia. When the ECN makes its debut on Nasdaq, it will have the distinction of being the first exchange of its kind to sell stock to the public, overtaking competitors such as Island, Archipelago and Brut. The IPO will be managed by CSFB, Deutsche Bank, Alex Brown, Bear Stearns, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney, and W.R.Hambrecht.

This announcement comes at a time of uncertainty in the tech markets, and last year Instinet dropped plans to market its own equity retail service, blaming a downturn in online retail share trading. However, Reuters and its advisors are believed to have been encouraged by this week's flotation of Deutsche Borse, which was 23 times oversubscribed.

.

 

 






Write a comment