German rail operator Deutsche Bahn's initial public offering will not go ahead as planned on Oct. 27, but will be delayed until market conditions improve, sources close to the company said on Thursday.
The partial privatisation of Deutsche Bahn is set to be Germany's biggest IPO in eight years, but a postponement would make it the latest IPO casualty of the global financial crisis, following several other flotations which have been called off in recent weeks.
The sources said no decision had been made to cancel the IPO, but it could be postponed until next spring. A formal decision was expected after a company steering committee meeting that was due to start around 4 p.m. (1200 GMT).
Germany's finance ministry and Deutsche Bahn had no immediate comment.
Deutsche Bahn had set Oct. 27 as the first day of trading for shares in DB Mobility Logistics, its passenger transport, logistics and service business unit.
But concerns about the timing of the part-privatisation had grown as a result of sharp stock market falls around the world.
The global market for IPOs collapsed in the third quarter of this year in its worst performance since early 2003, data from Thomson Reuters has shown.
On Wednesday, German solar technology company Schott Solar said it had decided to call off its initial public offering, pointing to the "dramatic deterioration in international capital market conditions in the past days".
Earlier this week, Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck questioned the timing of the Bahn flotation due to the crisis in world markets, but Deutsche Bahn responded by saying there had been no negative signs from the market so far.
Analysts have progressively scaled back estimates of what they expect the IPO to raise to as little as 4 billion euros, from up to 8 billion euros originally.
The sources said on Thursday Bahn was hoping to raise at least 4.5 billion euros.
Shares representing 24.9 percent of Deutsche Bahn's Mobility Logistics unit are due to be offered to private and institutional investors inside Germany and to institutional investors abroad through a private placement.
