(Repeats item issued late Thursday, with no change to text)
By Paulina Duran
SYDNEY, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Property Exchange Australia (PEXA), an online property settlements firm owned by the nation's big banks and local governments, has shelved its initial public offering (IPO) due to market volatility, a source said on Thursday.
Just two days ago the IPO's managers had said a consortium led by Macquarie Group MQG.AX and including the country's four largest banks was seeking to raise as much as A$862 million ($608.66 million), in what would have been the country's biggest listing for a software and internet services firm. shares were expected to commence trading on Nov. 19 but the bookbuilding for institutional investors was paused after investors pulled their orders on Thursday morning, the source who was familiar with the company's plans told Reuters.
"The extreme market conditions of the last 24 hours paused the bookbuild process," the source said. "The board and its advisers are going to continue to evaluate market conditions regarding an IPO option."
The Australian Financial Review earlier reported PEXA's halting of the IPO process.
Asian shares plunged on Thursday as hundreds of billions of dollars haemorrhaged from global markets after a rout in tech stocks inflicted the largest daily decline on Wall Street since 2011, wiping out all its gains for the year. the top of the range, PEXA's IPO would have been Australia's third-largest this year and would value the company at A$2.2 billion.
Earlier this week, shares in Coronado Global Resources CRN.AX , Australia's biggest coal mining listing since 2012, fell as much as 8.5 percent below its float price on the first day of trading, even after being priced at the bottom end of an offered range. ($1 = 1.4162 Australian dollars)