WH Group Chief Executive Officer Wan Long (right) and Smithfield Foods Chief Executive Officer Larry Pope pose with their products before a news conference on WH Group's initial public offering in Hong Kong. The company formerly known as Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd said on Wednesday that it will reduce and postpone its Hong Kong IPO. Bobby Yip / Reuters

WH Group Ltd, formerly known as Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd, said on Wednesday that it will reduce and postpone its Hong Kong initial public offering.

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Market observers said the issue, which had been expected to be the largest so far this year in Hong Kong, might be cut in half.

"The company may reduce the size of the global offering and accordingly publish a supplemental prospectus, which would result in a short delay in the timetable," said the world's largest meat processer in an announcement to the stock exchange.

The company noted that the IPO will lapse if the conditions in its prospectus are not fulfilled. The prospectus, published last week, indicated that if WH Group and its underwriters fail to reach an agreement on the offer price by April 28, the offering will lapse.

Subscriptions for the Hong Kong offering opened on April 15 and were to end a week later. The offer price, however, wasn't announced on Tuesday as expected.

Initially, the allotment results were to be disclosed on April 29 and trading was scheduled to start the following day.

Initially, WH Group aimed to sell 3.65 billion shares worldwide, of which 3.47 billion were to be sold internationally and the rest in Hong Kong.

Existing shareholders would release 731 million old shares in the global offering.

Proceeds from the issue were initially estimated at as much as HK$41.12 billion ($5.3 billion).