Travelport, a leading provider of transaction processing technologies and services to the global travel industry, postponed its IPO on Wednesday due to market conditions and became the second major private equity-backed European IPO to pull its offering in as many weeks. Last week chemical company Taminco (AMIN.BR), backed by CCVP Capital Partners, canceled its proposed listing on the Euronext/Brussels exchange after failing to drum up adequate demand from investors. Taminco was seeking to raise US$487 million. Travelport, which is owned by private equity giant Blackstone, planned to list on the LSE. It was seeking to raise US$1.8 billion, which would have been the largest IPO in London since 2007.
These international postponements come as the US IPO market faces similar pricing headwinds. So far in 2010, four companies have canceled planned US IPOs, while 9 of the 10 companies to complete IPOs in the US were forced to do so at lower valuations. Two more US IPOs set to price Wednesdady night, Graham Packaging (GRM) and JinkoSolar (JKS), are both expected to price below their anticipated ranges.
