IPO deja vu

Yet another IPO mania is upon us. Anyone who has been minimally aware of events in the Indian capital markets for the last two decades should surely know how exactly things will pan out. In terms of nominal total value of IPOs, 2017 is the biggest year yet, with Rs 40,956 crore collected from investors till mid-October. By the time the year ends, this is likely to go still higher-- well above 2010's total of Rs 37,534 crore. What is even more notable are the nose-bleed valuations of the equity markets compared to other recent IPO manias of a similar scale. During the IPO mania of 2007-08, the BSE 500 index was trading at 22 times earnings. In 2010, this was 21 times. Today, this is 27 times. For a number that's an average of 500 companies, that's a gigantic difference. Here's something I wrote in this column in October 2009: Back in February 2008, soon after the great bull-run a