Government-run steelmaker Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) once again deferred its planned public flotation, as the merchant bankers and steel ministry officials failed to settle differences over pricing of the issue.

This is the third time that the initial public offering (IPO) of RINL has been deferred, for which prospectus was filed with the stock market regulator on 18th of May this year.

As per sources, merchant bankers UBS and Deutsche Securities had recommended a price of Rs16-18 for each RINL share to be floated. But, steel ministry officials disapproved the recommended price range as it was much below the steelmaker's current book value of Rs22.50.

The steel ministry reportedly wants to price the IPO at par with the company's book value.

Speaking on the topic, a source said, "RINL being a profit making company, the steel ministry did not want to sell shares below its book value on Monday."

The government has plans to offload up to 10 per cent of its stake in RINL (up to 48.90 crore shares) in RINL through the IPO.

The deferment of the IPO due to lack of a consensus on the price range for stake sale is clearly a setback to the government's planned disinvestment programme.