Leading realty giant GMR Infrastructure has announced the postponement of $500-million QIP issue, due to poor response of investors in the wake of the global financial crisis. The firm, which is a part of consortium building the New Delhi airport, failed to attract investors even after reducing the size of offer by four-fifths to $100 million.

GMR, in a filing before Bombay Stock Exchange, said: "The management committee of the board of directors of the company has decided to withdraw the QIP in light of existing market conditions."

Earlier, on June 29, the Board of Directors of the company had given its nod to allot shares to qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) in an attempt to raise funds worth Rs 5,000 crore.

The move to withdraw the QIP offer came at a time when market has started showing signs of recovery, and firms such as Unitech, HCC and HDIL have started shares' sale.

A market source said: "Nearly half a dozen companies are in the market to rise over $2 billion from big institutional investors. The bunching of issuers also created a problem for GMR. More companies are in the pipeline. So liquidity is somewhat tight."

Shares of GMR infrastructure declined 8.8 per cent to Rs 141.65 on the BSE.