HONG KONG-After a spring thaw that saw several big offerings, Hong Kong’s market for new stock listings may be back on ice.
On Wednesday, Nexteer Automotive Group, a steering component supplier and former unit of General Motors now owned by Chinese investors, was forced to postpone a Hong Kong initial public offering that would have raised as much as 2.5 billion Hong Kong dollars ($322 million), a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The same day, the casino operator Macau Legend Development announced it would slash by half an I.P.O. that had planned to raise nearly $800 million. Instead, Macau Legend will seek a maximum of 2.8 billion Hong Kong dollars ($360 million).
Two weeks earlier, Hopewell Hong Kong Properties, a local developer, postponed its $780 million deal, citing a ‘‘significant deterioratio in market sentiment,’’ according to stock exchange filings.
Hong Kongâ€" the world’s biggest market for new share listings from 2009 to 2011 â€" had looked to be recovering from a 2012 slump as recently as last month, when two large I.P.O.s of more than $1 billion each were completed. But since then, the market has come under a double chill brought on by a cash crunch in China and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s plans to reduce quantitative easing. The benchmark Hang Seng Index has declined 11.5 percent in the past month.
‘‘The combination of concerns on the stability of the Chinese financial system and investor re-positioning in the wake of last week’s comments on potential Q.E. tapering has negatively impacted markets,’’ Andrew Swan, head of Asian fundamental eq! uities at BlackRock, an asset manager, said in an emailed statement.
Nexteer, based in Saginaw, Michigan, manufactures steering components and was previously part of G.M.’s Delphi unit. A subsidiary of the state-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of China acquired majority control of Nexteer in 2011, and the owners planned to use the money raised in the Hong Kong listing to boost production capacity and pay for more research and development. Whether the deal will be relaunched would depend on market conditions, according to the person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
The underwriters of Nexteer’s I.P.O. are Bank of China International and J.P. Mogan. Macau Legend’s underwriters are CLSA Asia-Pacific, Citic Securities and Credit Suisse.
The underwriters of the spin-off listing of Hopewell Hong Kong Properties included B.O.C. International, Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, HSBC Holdings and Citigroup.
