Springer Nature cancels public listing at eleventh hour

Springer Nature has postponed its planned initial public offering, hours before the academic publisher was set to begin trading shares.

The publisher cited “market conditions” as its reason for pulling the initial public offering—the first sale of stock issued by a company to the public—which was set to happen on 9 May. The decision was made jointly with its shareholders, the Berlin-based publishing group Holtzbrinck and funds advised by private-equity backers BC Partners, it said in a statement on 8 May.

It said it would “continue to closely evaluate the market environment in general and opportunities regarding an initial public offering of Springer Nature in the future”.