While the stake sale process of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) has already taken a hit, the government is hopeful of going ahead with divestment offerings of at least a couple of public sector undertaking (PSUs) within a month.

Disinvestment secretary Mohd Haleem Khan said that the government was working on announcing stake sale in companies like Hindustan Copper, Nalco, BHEL and Oil India after receiving approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs last month to divest stake in these four PSUs that would roughly fetch R15,000 crore.

Addressing the media on the sidelines of the Ficci?s 9th annual capital markets conference, Khan said: ?We are working on the companies that are approved by the CCEA for disinvestment. As soon as the procedural part is complete from the side of merchant bankers and the companies, we will go ahead. We are trying to push Hindustan Copper and Nalco in end of October to the first week of November.?

Khan said that there were other companies in the pipeline, too. ?Stake sale in NMDC has not yet been approved by the CCEA; however, we have started the process,? Khan added. For FY13, the government has set a target of raising R30,000 crore through stake sale route in PSUs.

Khan also clarified the government’s stance on postponing the public offer of RINL, saying the government would revisit the whole issue as the commodity market conditions, especially in the steel market, were unfavourable.

?The initial projections were optimistic… The feedback from merchant bankers was to go ahead with the issue once the RINL expansion was fully rolled out for better reception from investors. The government will revisit the whole issue in a month or two and see how it works out. RINL is a small issue and it should not have any bearing on the disinvestment target,? Khan said.

The initial public offer of RINL was postponed for the third time last week as merchant bankers and the steel ministry could not reach the appropriate price band for the offer.

Khan also expressed likelihood of coming out with the public offer for Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) and NTPC by end of the current fiscal and said the government was looking into the structure of HAL.