Reliance Communications, the flagship telecoms arm of billionaire Anil Ambani’s debt-laden Indian conglomerate, has postponed the Singapore listing of its undersea cable division.

In a statement the group said it would “await supportive market conditions and easing of prevailing global uncertainties to proceed with the offering/listing at an appropriate time in the future”.

The move is the latest in a series of aborted offerings on the Singapore exchange, after both Formula One and Manchester United cancelled plans to list on the borse, citing weak demand from investors.

It also came as Sany Heavy, one of the world’s biggest makers of construction machinery such as concrete mixers and pumps, on Friday pulled the plug on its long delayed, near $2bn, Hong Kong share listing.

The decision to delay its Singapore listing is a major setback for Mr Ambani’s group, which hoped to raise as much as $1.5bn from the sale of a stake in the undersea cable business, known as Flag Telecom.

The Indian tycoon’s wider Reliance group, which includes infrastructure, power and financial services divisions in addition to telecoms, has been beset by a mixture of elevated debts and falling stock market valuations in recent years.

RCom, whose share price has fallen about a third in the past 12 months, has repeatedly attempted to raise new finances to reduce its net debt burden, which stood at Rs358bn ($6.5bn) at the end of March 2012.

The Mumbai-based business, India’s second-largest mobile phone operator by subscribers, repeatedly attempted to sell a stake in its telecoms towers unit during 2011, but a deal failed to materialise.

The group’s problems were eased earlier this year when Mr Ambani secured a $1.2bn loan for RCom from three state-backed Chinese banks, which he used to refinance repayments for a dollar-denominated bond.

But even with this infusion of Chinese funds, the finances of both Mr Ambani’s telecoms arm and that of his wider group remain precarious, analysts said.

“Ambani is in dire straits in terms of his debt outstanding in Reliance Communication, and his cash flows cannot support that kind of debt,” said one senior Mumbai-based investment adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Mr Ambani took control of Flag Telecom after a protracted public battle for control with his elder brother Mukesh for his father’s Reliance empire resulted in a division of the group.

Signs of weak demand in the IPO emerged earlier this week when the group extended a deadline for participation by investors, despite securing participation from groups including Temasek, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund, and China Investment Corporation, said people familiar with the situation.

For Sany, which last year abandoned a first attempt at fundraising in Hong Kong, it might now instead look to China’s A-share market, where it is already listed.

Additional reporting by Paul J Davies in Hong Kong and Leslie Hook in Beijing