Virgin Money, the British financial services company partly owned by billionaire Richard Branson, became the third issuer to delay its listing in the past week amid concerns over volatile market conditions.
The lender had hoped to list its shares in London this month, but on Friday said that it was “mindful of market conditions.”
It now expects its initial public offering (IPO) to occur some time after this month.
“We remain focused on delivering a successful initial public offering as soon as market conditions allow,” Virgin Money chief executive officer Jayne-Anne Gadhia said in a statement.
The poor performance of several listings in Europe this month — including the highly anticipated IPOs of the German online seller Zalando and the German technology company Rocket Internet — has given several issuers cold feet recently.
Aldermore, a British online bank, and Spie, the French engineering and construction company, both postponed their offerings in the past week.
They are now joined by Virgin Money, which plans to use a portion of the proceeds for its final payment to the British government in connection with its acquisition of Northern Rock, which was nationalized during the financial crisis.
The offerings that have gone forward this week have struggled.
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd, one of the funds of activist investor William Ackman, stumbled in its debut in Amsterdam on Monday.
The luxury shoe brand Jimmy Choo Ltd on Friday began trading in London after pricing its IPO, but was flat through midday after giving back its initial gains.
The shoemaker narrowed its price range earlier in the week and priced at the bottom of its expected range.
Virgin Money still hopes to proceed with its IPO when market conditions improve.
It is seen as a challenger to the larger, more traditional lenders that dominate the banking landscape.
Virgin Money is a retail-only bank primarily focused on providing home loans, savings accounts and credit cards in Britain — it has about 2.8 million customers.
When it goes forward, the bank hopes to raise about ￡150 million (US$240.1 million) in its IPO and to sell shares equivalent to about 25 percent of its capital.
Virgin Money expects to use a portion of the proceeds to make its final payment of ￡50 million to the British government in connection with its acquisition of Northern Rock in 2011.
In the first six months of this year, Virgin Money’s underlying profit before tax rose to ￡59.7 million, up from 13.1 million pounds in the period a year earlier. Underlying profit excludes certain charges to provide a more accurate comparison between periods.
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