Sept 17 (Reuters) - Holtec Nuclear suspended its planned U.S. initial public offering late on Wednesday, citing market conditions, shelving a listing that was set to headline the first full week of the traditionally strong fall IPO window.
Global markets have taken a sharp turn against the AI data center economy in recent weeks, as investors have grown increasingly focused on the vast capital required to build AI infrastructure and whether the resulting returns can justify the spending.
"It's like
a perfect storm," CEO Krishna Singh told the Financial Times. "Our business, rightly or wrongly, is viewed as connected to it (data centres). We provide nuclear power. So that was, of course, a big factor in market sentiment against nuclear."
Broader markets have also been whipsawed in September by surging bond yields and a shift back toward tighter monetary policy, with the U.S. Federal Reserve delivering its first rate hike since 2023 this week.
Holtec said it would continue to evaluate the timing of the offering, but did not give a specific date.
Holtec was aiming to raise up to $900 million by selling 50 million shares at between $15 and $18 apiece, with the IPO expected to price on Thursday.
The suspension, first reported by Bloomberg, is a setback for issuers from the nuclear sector, where stocks have had a tough run in recent months as markets have reassessed the outlook for AI-driven power demand.
Standard Nuclear, which debuted in July after downsizing its U.S. IPO, has seen its shares plunge 20.6% from the offer price through Wednesday's close.
Nuclear reactor maker X-Energy, which went public in April, is trading 36.7% below its IPO price.
Founded in 1986 by Singh, Holtec specializes in areas such as heat transfer and reactor components, spent fuel storage and nuclear plant decommissioning. The firm is also developing small modular reactors.
(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda and Subhranshu Sahu)
