Oct 9 (Reuters) – Shares of Australia’s Maas Group entered a trading halt on Friday pending an announcement related to Nvidia-backed data centre operator Firmus, which has shelved its $5 billion listing plan, citing market volatility and conditions.
Construction services provider Maas said it had requested the halt pending a material announcement regarding Firmus and its contractual arrangements with the data centre operator.
The company said it expected the halt to be lifted once it updated the market or by the start of trading on Monday.
In early August, Maas pledged an additional A$300 million($208.74 million) to Firmus through ordinary and preference shares priced at A$230 apiece, increasing its stake in the data centre operator to 3.2%.
The trading halt comes after Maas shares plunged more than 20% on Thursday following reports that Firmus was reconsidering the terms of its planned listing.
The selloff erased about A$517 million from Maas Group’s market value, leaving the stock down more than 30% from the record high it reached earlier this month.
Earlier on Friday, Firmus scrapped its hotly anticipated initial public offering and said it would opt for a private fundraising round instead.
The firm, which counts OpenAI as its anchor customer, designs and operates modular AI factories that use proprietary energy and cooling technology.
The proposed IPO would have been Australia’s second-largest on record, but drew lukewarm investor demand, signalling that investors remain selective toward AI-linked listings despite the artificial intelligence boom fuelling global equity markets.
The deal’s term sheet, circulated at launch, said indicative orders were already sufficient to cover the size of the offering.
However, prospective investors told Reuters they were concerned about the company’s rapidly rising valuation, its ability to deliver on ambitious expansion plans and its hefty debt pile.
($1 = 1.4372 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)