Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically the difference in long run post issue performance of initial public offerings (IPOs) that tapped the Indian primary market through a fixed price offer and book building offer; also to assess the persistence of underperformance between these two routes of offering. Design/methodology/approach: The after market performance of the IPOs is empirically assessed based on their market prices and also taking into consideration the other factors associated with the after market performance such as the period of issue (boom/slump), sector in which the industry is operating, etc. Findings: The results suggest that there is no difference in the direction of performance of the issues post listing in the short run, however in the long run the issues that tapped the market through the book building route seemed to perform far better than the ones that raised money through a fixed price offer. The results also suggested that the average return irrespective of the route of issue remains the same and this is because of the high initial return of issues that tapped the market with fixed price offers. Originality/value: The paper provides useful information about the IPO markets of India and abroad, related literature and theories or hypotheses concerning methods of issue. © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.