DAIRY Crest, the former manufacturing arm of the defunct British Milk Marketing Board, remains committed to a stock market flotation in the face of a difficult market for new issues in London.

Dairy Crest priced its flotation at 155p per share, valuing the company at £171.4 million, some £40 million below analysts' original estimates. The offer is worth £6,000 each for 29,000 diary farmers who provided the funds for the dairy's development within the old Milk Marketing Board.

The dairy farmers are entitled to 70 percent of Dairy Crest shares and the rest will be sold to institutions.

The price reflects the unusually long four week underwriting period - between the offer and the share dealing date, said Mr John Aston, a corporate finance director at merchant bank Schroders.