The paper examines how the operating performance of the Indian firms changed after their initial public offerings. It is found that the operating performance does not deteriorate post IPOs, if a performance indicator like “profit” is normalised by sales volumes (i.e., return on sales) rather than assets (i.e., return on assets). Unlike a distinct decline in return on assets reported in similar other studies, a stable return on sales is found in this study. This paper highlights the importance of choice of right variables for matching and normalisation purposes.