A planned flotation of Germany's HSH Nordbank has been scuppered by market conditions in the second setback this year for JC Flowers, a buyout firm which owns over a quarter of the ship finance specialist and which failed to offload Dutch investment bank NIBC last month.

JC Flowers, the US private equity group founded by former Goldman Sachs banker Christopher Flowers, holds a 27% stake in ship financier HSH and had intended to float the company in the second half of this year.