German shipping group Hapag-Lloyd postpones IPO

German container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd said Tuesday it has postponed its plans for a stock market listing, originally scheduled for Friday.

Without providing any explanation for the move, Hapag-Lloyd said in a short statement that the offer period for the sale of new shares "will be extended until November 3, 2015."

The company also said it intends to eventually publish a supplement to the prospectus released on October 14.

On that date, Hapag-Lloyd had already scaled back the estimated proceeds it hoped to raise from the initial public offering (IPO) from $500 million (450 million euros) to $300 million.

Hapag-Lloyd intends to list its shares on the regulated markets of the Frankfurt and Hamburg stock exchanges.

A number of stock market hopefuls have had to postpone or scale back their planned IPOs recently as a result of the market turbulence sparked by concerns about the fallout from the economic slowdown in China and the Volkswagen emissions-cheating scandal.

These include Covestro, the former polymers division of Bayer, and auto parts supplier Schaeffler.

Hapag-Lloyd intends to use the IPO proceeds for more investments in ships and containers to "further strengthen its capital structure, long-term growth and profitability."

Hapag-Lloyd already eyed a stock market listing after it acquired the container shipping activities of CSAV in mid-2014 to create the world's number four in the sector, with revenues of nearly nine billion euros.

A former division of tourism giant TUI -- which still holds a 14 percent stake in the company -- Hapag-Lloyd has planned an IPO several times in the past, but postponed it.