Letter to BS: Markets suffering from acute shortage of good quality stocks

Going by the experience and track record of IPOs of ONGC, Coal India and a dozen other PSUs, it is doubtful whether investors will reap reasonable capital appreciation and dividends.

This refers to “LIC's governance makes it a poor market bet” by Subhomoy Bhattacharjee (February 27). The writer makes some interesting points about the governance structure and accounting methods, especially relating to profit calculation, which will be useful for potential investors as and when the IPO hits the market. LIC has been used as the government's white knight in rescuing many market offerings while saving it from financial stress by resorting to imaginative accounting at times. LIC's surplus has been built over decades. thanks to its monopoly status and these reserves belong to the policyholders and not the sovereign. Going