Looks like TFN LN got the deal:Tradepoint Leaps as Reuters-Led Group Plans to Buy 54% Stake 5/7/99 6:6
(not good for ASTN, AG says sell/sell short right now)
London, May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Tradepoint Financial Networks
Plc, a U.K. electronic stock-trading system, almost tripled after
Reuters Group Plc's Instinet Corp. and a group of securities
firms said they plan to buy a majority stake in company.
The shares in the three-year-old trading system rose as much
as 119 pence, or 190 percent, to 181.5, following the
announcement after the close of trade yesterday. Its shares have
been suspended since April 9, when it closed at 62.5p, pending
the announcement. Tradepoint is currently trading at 149.5, up
87p.
The Reuters-led group said it will buy a 54.4 percent stake
in the company for 14 million pounds (US$22.4 million). The
purchasers are among Wall Street's biggest firms -- Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter & Co., J.P. Morgan & Co., mutual-fund giant
American Century, and electronic stock-trading network
Archipelago LLC., owned in part by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
''It's a good deal for all shareholders,'' said Ronald
Cohen, chairman of Apax Partners & Co., which owns 17 percent of
Tradepoint. ''The key for all electronic networkers is to achieve
critical mass. With Instinet leading such a powerful consortium,
... the critical mass should be achieved.''
Tradepoint handles 160 million shares a month, compared with
1.1 billion shares daily on the rival London Stock Exchange,
giving it one percent of the market. The company, which announced
a pretax loss of 5.64 million pounds for the nine month ending
Dec. 1998, said it would need to boost its market share to two
percent to break even.
London-based Reuters is trying to develop a global
electronic-trading network. |
