Financial services group K2 Asset Management Holdings Ltd (K2) has put its initial public offer on hold following recent market volatility.
K2 chairman Campbell Neal said the company decided to withdraw its float following a board meeting yesterday.
“We had a board meeting [yesterday] to discuss that actual event,” Neal said.
He said as the market has continued to fare worse by the day, K2 reached a point where they were concerned about the secondary market.
“While the stock we were doing was over subscribed and all the cheques were in, it really got to a stage about the secondary market past floating.
“When it looked like it would [float] as a discount, then it was time to withdrawing from the offer.”
Neal said as the group were selling down a small amount, 9.8 per cent of the equity of K2 Asset Management Holdings Ltd, the parent company of K2 Asset Management Ltd. It wasn’t really being such a big transaction. It was existing shareholders selling down.
“Obviously we will wait. With the views of markets settling down it would be me and the boards view. When I say a while, I’m not saying weeks or months it will be longer than that.
“I think we need to see some calming on the market before we do anything. You don’t take the decision to withdraw the offer lightly. “
Neal said that the withdrawal did not reflect a change in K2’s outlook on the medium to long-term performance of the funds under management.
The K2 listing was a “sell down” 9.8% of the equity of K2 Asset Management Holdings Ltd, the parent company of K2 Asset Management Ltd, at $1.60 per offer share, raising A$33.32 million.
After listing there would have been 212.5 million shares in K2 with a market capitalisation at the issue price of A$340 million.
Fellow pre-listing financial services groups such as Centric Wealth and Professional Investment Services said they would not delay their listing.
Centric Wealth joint chief executive Michael Pillemer said the group currently has no plans to delay its initial public offer (IPO) at the end of year.
“There is no plan for us to change the objectives for our IPO. We have a very strong private client business model and continue to help our investors reach their objectives through the highs and the lows of the market,” Pillemer said.
