German Property Company GSW Shelves IPO

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German property company GSW (GIBG.DE) has called off plans to float its shares on the stock market amid concern about the turmoil on equity markets triggered by Greece’s debt crisis.

“Since announcing its intention to float there has been significantly increased volatility and uncertainty in global equity markets,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

The bailout of Greece to prevent a broader debt crisis has kept markets in check over recent weeks as investors fretted over the fiscal health of highly indebted euro zone states.  

“Recent macroeconomic developments unrelated to GSW have resulted in a significant deterioration of the capital market environment,” it said, adding that it therefore had decided to postpone its planned initial public offering (IPO).

It did not give a new date for its IPO.

GSW had planned to raise up to 491 million euros ($654 million) by offering shares for 15 euros to 18.50 euros each until May 6. The bourse debut was set for May 7.

GSW was founded in 1924 by the city state of Berlin, which sold it to a consortium of Goldman Sachs’s (GS.N) Whitehall fund and Cerberus [CBS.UL] in 2004. Goldman and Cerberus had planned to float up to 63 percent of GSW on the stock exchange.

(Reporting by Eva Kuehnen; Editing by Michael Shields)