New Century Shipbuilding scraps Singapore listing

China’s New Century Shipbuilding withdrew its Singapore initial public offering, the Financial Times reported. The US$481m listing would have been this year’s biggest IPO on the Singapore Exchange (SGXL.SI). The shipbuilder, based near the Chinese port of Zhangjiagang on the Yangtze River, gave no reason for the withdrawal, though a report in the Singapore Business Times says the cancellation comes after a complaint that the firm failed to disclose an ongoing legal dispute with a customer that called off an order for two bulk carriers, Reuters reported. New Century, with joint bookrunners UBS (UBSN.VX) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N), had already downsized the listing just days ago amid weakening market sentiment. The pullout is a setback for the Singapore Exchange, which hoped to attract more large IPOs from China after the shipbuilder’s capital raising had occurred. New Century stated it would consider relaunching the listing in the “near future”.