The central government has said that it is planning to sell its holding in the nation's biggest health insurer Medibank Private through an Initial Public Offering.

The country's Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has said that the company, which is owned by the government, will launch an initial public offering in the next financial year, 2014-15. Cormann also said that a study has showed that the insurance premiums are not likely to rise due to the privatisation.

The government had expressed interest in selling its stake in the company at an appropriate time in order to gain the maximum selling price. He did not announce the figures relating to the share sale yet. The IPO rules will now allow any single investor to acquire more than a 15 per cent share in the insurer as per the Medibank Sale Act passed by Parliament in 2006.

"It wouldn't be appropriate for me to speculate on what sale price may or may not be achieved. I'm not going to put a figure on it. Obviously, our objective is to maximise net proceeds from the sale," he said