Standard Chartered Bank has deferred its plan for a secondary listing of its shares on the Hong Kong stock market on October 18.
'Given the tragic events in the United States and the consequent uncertainty in global equity markets, Standard Chartered has decided to defer its listing in Hong Kong,' the bank said in a brief statement yesterday.
The postponement would continue 'until stock markets have returned to some normality', group executive director in Hong Kong Mervyn Davies told a news conference.
'I want to absolutely stress that we want to list and raise equity here as soon as possible,' Mr Davies said.
'But it's in the lap of the markets.'
The decision follows a pre-marketing exercise to big institutional investors of the proposed share issue planned to coincide with the listing.
However, Mr Davies declined to give details of the responses gathered by the exercise undertaken on Monday and Tuesday.