UPDATE 1-Vietnam tech company VNG withdraws US IPO filing

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Company had earlier delayed the plan

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Says it plans to register again in the future

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Shares end 2.5% lower

(Updates story dated Jan. 23 with a response from VNG on Jan. 24 in paragraph 5)

By Phuong Nguyen and Yantoultra Ngui

HANOI/SINGAPORE, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Vietnamese internet company VNG Ltd has withdrawn its initial public offering (IPO) registration in the United States, a statement filed to the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission dated Jan. 19 shows.

Ho Chi Minh City-headquartered VNG said in the statement it "has determined not to conduct a registered offering at this time and intends to file a new registration statement in the future".

VNG did not disclose its reason for withdrawing not any timeframe for a future registration.

A source familiar with the matter said the company could not meet some certain deadlines for the registration and hence withdrew, but would continue to explore the listing opportunity.

VNG declined to comment.

VNG in September had delayed its plan to list in the U.S., in an IPO that could have raised $150 million, due to volatile market conditions, Reuters reported at that time citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

Founded in 2004, VNG was Vietnam's first unicorn - a startup valued at $1 billion or more.

Its businesses include online games, payments, cloud services and Vietnam's most popular messaging app, Zalo.

An IPO would have made it the first Vietnamese technology company to list in the U.S.

VNG's shares on Vietnam's Unlisted Public Company Market or Upcom ended Tuesday down 2.5%.

(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen in Hanoi and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Kim Coghill)