Instinet Files With SEC for $450 Million IPO

Instinet's

plans for going public are finally in. The New York-based electronic brokerage, a unit of media company

Reuters

(RTRSY)

, hopes to raise $450 million through an initial public offering, according to a filing with the

Securities and Exchange Commission

.

Instinet plans to use the proceeds from the offering to repay about $200 million in debt owed to Reuters. The rest of the proceeds will go to general corporate purposes, including working capital, capital expenditures and possible acquisitions and investments in other companies.

Instinet, which has applied for a

Nasdaq

listing under the symbol "INET," hired

Credit Suisse First Boston

and

Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown

to lead its IPO.

Reuters, which is based in London, will retain a majority stake in Instinet, which last year

abandoned plans to make

Instinet.com

a separate equity trading service, amid a slowing online trading market.

Shares of Reuters lately lost $1.06, or 1.2%, to $90 in morning trading on the Nasdaq.