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"Holtec Nuclear Corporation today announced the postponement of its initial public offering due to market conditions. Holtec will continue to evaluate the timing of the offering in the future," the company said, without giving further details.

However, in an interview published by the Financial Times, CEO Kris Singh said a recent market turn against the AI data centre economy was responsible. "It's like a perfect storm," Singh told the publication. "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."

The US-headquartered, multinational technology company, which is the owner and developer of the SMR-300 advanced small modular reactor, is also the authorised operator of the Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan, which it is in the process of recommissioning. With technical capabilities including reactor design, reactor operations, engineering, licensing, manufacturing, construction, commissioning, and decommissioning services, and three large US-based manufacturing facilities for nuclear fabrication, and operating on five continents, the company says it has provided products and services to a client base of more than 150 nuclear reactors worldwide.

Holtec announced the filing of its Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to the proposed initial public offering (IPO) of its Class A common stock in mid-July, and its intention to list its Class A common stock on The Nasdaq Stock Market and Nasdaq Texas. According to that filing, the company - which conducts its business through Holtec International - intended to reorganise under the Holtec Nuclear Corporation holding company name as part of the offering process.

On 8 September, the company announced the launch of the "roadshow" for the proposed IPO of 50,000,000, with the price expected to be between USD15.00 and USD18.00 per share, which would have raised up to USD900 million. 

Recent weeks have seen Holtec projects progressing around the world. Fuel loading began at Palisades - set to be the first commercial nuclear reactor in the USA to resume operations following permanent shutdown - on 30 August, and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given the company the go-ahead to begin certain early site work for the first deployment of the SMR-300, Pioneer units 1 and 2, which will also be built at the Michigan site. In June, Holtec and EDF submitted a joint proposal for up to four SMR-300 small modular reactors at the Cottam power plant site in Nottinghamshire in the UK.