Instinet Group Completes Acquisition Of Bridge Trading

Instinet Group Incorporated (NASDAQ: INGP), the global electronic agency brokerage, today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Bridge Trading Company, an agency execution broker, from Reuters (LSE: RTR.L; NASDAQ: RTRSY), the global information company, for 3,751,527 shares of INGP stock, valued at approximately $21.5 million. Bridge Trading has received all the necessary regulatory approvals, and Instinet Group expects the transaction, which closed today, to be accretive to its shareholders in the first year.

The combination of Bridge Trading with Instinet Group's agency broker, Instinet, LLC, will potentially provide numerous synergies. Instinet will have the opportunity to grow its client base, increase exchange-listed trading volume, and expand its offerings to the institutional investor community. Bridge Trading will be able to offer Instinet's services to more than 500 U.S. institutional clients from Bridge Trading's regional offices around the country. Bridge Trading executed on average more than 8 million shares per day in 2004, including both exchange-listed and OTC volume.

Mike Plunkett, President, North America, Instinet, LLC, stated, "We believe that the acquisition of Bridge Trading, with its strong client base and expertise in listed-trading, will help Instinet remain one of the largest pure agency-only institutional brokers. In addition, this transaction should bring more volume to our platform, giving our institutional clients more opportunities to trade with each other."

The integration of Bridge Trading into Instinet should be seamless to Bridge Trading's clients, providing them with the ability to leverage Instinet's proprietary trading technology and front-ends. Bridge Trading will operate as an independent broker-dealer and retain its name for a transitional period.