RINL issue unlikely to hit markets this fiscal

"The company had filed red herring prospectus with SEBI on October 8 hoping to launch IPO on October 16. Now, it has gone past three months and with this, it has lost validity. This calls for submission of documents afresh which take some time," a Steel Ministry official said.

"Taking the time required for RINL to file offer document into consideration, it is unlikely that the issue will be launched within the current fiscal," he added.

The RINL issue has already been deferred thrice since the filing of the draft prospectus with market regulator SEBI on May 18 last year. First, it was put on hold as a result of volatile market conditions and then due to a major explosion, which took place during the trial of a new oxygen control unit near the steel melting shop at Vizag Steel Plant (VSP).

Finally, in October last year, it was deferred following disagreements on the pricing of issue with merchant bankers. The issue was supposed to kick-start the government's Rs 30,000 crore disinvestment process for the current fiscal that has mopped up a little over Rs 6,900 crore so far.

Ten PSUs that include Oil India , NTPC , BHEL and SAIL are on the list of the government's disinvestment programme. RINL is the second largest state-owned steel maker in the country producing three million tonnes per annum (mtpa) at its lone facility at Visakhapatnam. The capacity is being raised to 6.3 mtpa in the current fiscal.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in January had approved disinvestment of 10 percent of government's 100 percent stake in the firm.