The owners of food and drink firms could be getting cold feet over 2014 IPOs according to a corporate finance specialist as Marfrig delays its decision to float Moy Park until 2015.

Despite “strong interest from the City” in the food and drink sector the building pipeline of food and drink IPOs could be scuppered by worsening market and economic conditions, according to a report on listings in the sector by Gambit Corporate Finance.

Pointing to the IMF’s reduced forecast for economic growth in the eurozone and recent FTSE 100 volatility, Gambit sad: “Given the turbulence in the markets in the past week, we should not be surprised if nerves are lost and IPOs are deferred.”

The prediction comes as Brazilian food group Marfrig looks to have postponed the IPO of poultry specialist Moy Park, which was in an advanced stage of planning during the summer with a 2014 listing in mind.

Marfrig CEO Sergio Rial said the group will now wait until 2015 to make a decision on whether to list Moy Park and Keystone Foods.

He told the Wall Street Journal: “There has been a very large number [of UK IPOs] and now the investors need to digest everything that they have already bought… I believe from now on, it’s more possible that we think about [listing the businesses] in the first six months of 2015.”

Moy Park was one of the growing pipeline of food producers looking to tap the market’s first half appetite for new retail stocks, with names under consideration including Quorn, Weetabix and Adelie.

However, the wider market has seen retail bank Aldermore, Virgin Money and Miller Homes cancel their IPOs in recent weeks and Jimmy Choo price its listing at the lower end of guidance.

Last week the VIX Index - which measures global market volatility and is also known as the “fear index” - hit its highest level for three years.

“When you get volatility you get nervousness and uncertainty” said Gambit director Andrew Charter. He said that the effect of current volatility could be relatively temporary and once stability returns floats in the food and drink sector become realistic again “because the demand is there”.

However, he cautioned the turmoil in the retailers is having an impact and dampening investor appetite.

United Biscuits is known to be actively working on listing plans and, despite takeover talks with various parties, a float was thought to be its private equity owners’ preferred exit.

However, Charter said trade sales were now looking increasingly attractive to larger businesses wanting to divest assets. “There are an awful lot of large corporates sitting on large cash reserves with a low level of gearing. That makes a trade sale a very attractive alternative to a float for some of these businesses.”

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