Tweaking IPO rules won't stop mispricing

Sebi has announced "stricter information disclosures" in an effort to bring down the "information asymmetry" between issuers and investors

Towards the end of every bull market, glamorous companies, chaperoned by blue-blooded investment bankers, dump a bunch of extremely high-priced initial public offerings (IPOs) on the public. The prices drop on listing and inflict large losses on investors. In July last year, CarTrade made an IPO at Rs 1,585. Last week its stock price closed at Rs 604, a loss of 62 per cent. A couple of months later came Policybazaar, with its IPO priced at Rs 980. Last week, the stock closed at Rs 487, a 50 per cent drop. A week after Policybazaar came Paytm, with an issue