WH Group, the world's largest pork company, is lowering its proposed Hong Kong IPO to US$1.9 billion and will delay the pricing of the deal to next week, Reuters reports.

Its initial plan had called for an IPO of up to US$5.3 billion and the decision reflects volatility in Hong Kong markets that has disfavoured new listings.

WH Group's IPO has also faced confusion caused from the record number of bookrunners on its deal that frustrated some fund managers.

A US$600 million payout to two top executives for helping the Chinese company seal last year's record US$4.9 billion acquisition of United States-based Smithfield Foods also raised corporate governance concerns. It plans to use much of the funds raised in the IPO to pay back debt incurred in that acquisition.

The top end of the IPO price range gave the Smithfield business an implied valuation of US$13.5 billion, almost double what WH Group paid last year, calculations by Breakingviews, a Thomson Reuters publication, showed.

WH Group will now sell fewer primary shares than originally planned, and no stock from existing shareholders, Thomson Reuters publication IFR reported.

The revised offering would constitute 10% of its expanded share capital, which would be equivalent to about 1.3 billion new shares, based on its 11.69 billion existing shares, according to Reuters calculations.

At the top of its current indicative range, the revised IPO could be valued at up to US$1.9 billion.

WH Group and shareholders including Goldman Sachs, Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings and CDH Investments had originally planned to sell shares in the deal.

Pricing had been originally been slated for this Tuesday, and the company had been due to debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange on April 30.