With an aim to rein in cases of over-pricing and over-hyping of IPOs by merchant bankers, market watchdog Sebi wants them to tell the investors about their past record in handling the public offers and also keep the prices at realistic levels.

Sebi has expressed its displeasure in very clear terms to the merchant bankers over the cases where IPOs have been priced in such a manner that there is little left on table for the public investors in terms of potential returns, a senior official said.

At the same time, the regulator is also not happy with the hard-selling of these overpriced IPOs to the retail investors in a manner that 'good returns' are assured from investment in such share sales, even if the pricing is beyond rational levels, he added.