The Australian government's plan to sell its remaining 51.8 percent stake in telecommunications giant Telstra is on track for this year, Finance Minister Nick Minchin said Sunday.
The government's 6.44 billion shares in the country's biggest telecoms firm are currently valued at around 24.5 billion dollars (19 billion US).
"We are on track to conduct a retail offer in October, November this year - we're still aiming at that," Minchin told commercial television.
"I'm confident we will have a retail offering - whether it's for all or part of our shares we'll judge closer to the time, depending on demand."
The timing of the sale has been in doubt as Telstra's shares continue to languish at around 3.80 dollars after falling more than 22 percent since last July.
Prime Minister John Howard said in February that the government would wait until the share price was optimal.
"We are not irretrievably committed to selling by a certain date," Howard said. "I have never taken the view that we will be a distressed seller. We're not going to do that."
If the sale does go ahead, it will be the third tranche of Telstra shares sold by the government.
The first two, known as T1 and T2, were carried out in 1997 and 1999.
The T2 shares were offered at 7.40 dollars each and doubts remain over whether Australian investors who have seen them plummet since then will be lining up to participate in T3.
The government appointed three investment banks late last year to help sell its remaining stake, with the drumming up of support for T3 in international markets as part of their brief.
Telstra in February released a first-half net profit of 2.14 billion dollars, down more than 10 percent on the previous first half.