IPO Schedule Picks Up, Headed by Instinet

Wall Street’s largest electronic brokerage, an energy-related company and an optical switch maker will debut this week as the market for new stock offerings picks up pace after its recent dry spell.

Leading the calendar in size this week is Instinet Group Inc., the institutional brokerage unit of global news and information provider Reuters Group. Instinet, which was founded in 1969, runs an electronic communications network--an alternative trading system that matches buyers with sellers electronically--that accounted for 15% of volume in Nasdaq stocks in the first quarter.

Instinet, which was acquired by Reuters in 1987, aims to raise around $400 million, in the first stock offering by an ECN. Demand for the offering will be closely watched because Nasdaq itself expects to go public in 2002.

An offering by Global Power Equipment Group Inc., one of the largest makers of equipment for gas turbine power plants, follows a recent string of energy-related IPOs. Energy has been the market’s hottest sector because of looming power shortages across the nation.

Tellium Inc., a maker of optical switches used to speed data transmissions, is seen as a test of investor interest in one of last year’s booming sectors--fiber optics.