HBM BioVentures, a Swiss venture capital investor, has abandoned its plans for a potential €250m ($367m) initial public offering in favour of listing Sfr1bn of existing shares after a difficult year for listed private equity funds.

HBM BioVentures was looking to raise up to Sfr250m from an initial public offering, according to a source with knowledge of the listing. HBM said it had hoped to attract “new and private institutional investors from Switzerland and internationally”, however, in early February HBM conceded that due to the difficult market environment it would not pursue a capital raising and would instead list all its existing shares on the investment companies segment of the Swiss Exchange without selling more shares.