Our Competitive Advantage

Performance first culture: Our investment team has a strong performance-first culture with an objective of generating superior returns compared to the peer group over any reasonable time period during a market cycle.

High calibre team of stock pickers with global experience: Our well-resourced research team of nine local experts bring average relevant experience of 12 years. Every senior sector analyst is paired with an associate analyst, forming two people team for every stock under coverage.

In depth research covering full breath of Indian equities market: We conduct on average 2000 company meetings per year to fully understand industry dynamics and competitive environment of each company we invest in.

Bottom up stock selection philosophy honed over two decades: We believe outsized returns are earned over time by investing in great businesses at attractive values. Attributes of great businesses include superior return on incremental capital, scalability, and good management both in execution and governance. Our cashflow based valuation framework is designed to capture these attributes.

Rigorous fundamental research process: Our intensive field research and highly interactive team environment, in both formally scheduled and informal settings, are very conducive to generating strong investment ideas.

Balanced portfolio construction ensures stock selection driven performance: We consciously avoid top down macro bets and seek to ensure that portfolio investments are aligned with the team’s bottom-up philosophy.

Why India

A remarkable growth opportunity: India is expected to grow between 5-7% over the next 20 years, making it the fastest growing major economy by a large margin. Based on these projections, the Indian economy will triple in size, and its share of global GDP will increase from 8% today to 15% (PPP basis), making it the third largest economy in the world. India’s GDP per capita is expected to increase from 10% (US levels) to almost 25%, the biggest increase amongst major EM economies*.

*Source: Capital Economics, January 2019

A market that is undergoing transformation for better tomorrow: India’s growth is still at a burgeoning stage that will accelerate as formal systems come into place to fortify its legal framework and corporate governance pillars. The landmark reforms undertaken since 2014 – demonetisation, Goods-and-Services Reform, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, The Real Estate Regulatory Act and so on, have structurally changed India, shifting it to a new paradigm, thereby smoothing India’s execution challenges that hindered growth in the past.

Domestically driven growth underpinned by mature democracy: India offers strong domestically driven growth led by attractive demographics, domestic consumption and investment. Underpinning this growth is India’s mature democratic institutional infrastructure evident in its independent central bank, election commission and judiciary.

Under-researched alpha potential: Emerging markets are less efficient in terms of information flow versus developed markets, where active managers can really add value from carrying out bottom-up fundamental research. The case for active management in India is particularly more acute given that Indian stock exchanges have more than 5,000 firms, of which 80% are small caps requiring deeper understanding and research**. This is where a local manager with significant research capabilities can generate alpha by exploring the small cap universe of the markets, that are less covered by stockbrokers, banks and other buy-side analysts.

** Source: Bloomberg, Motilal Oswal, December 2018

About Investment Adviser

History of the firm
White Oak Capital Management Consultants LLP (“White Oak India” or “the Firm”) is a Mumbai-based boutique investment management and investment advisory firm domiciled in India. It was formed in June 2017 by Mr. Prashant Khemka, former CIO and Lead Portfolio Manager of India Equity and Global Emerging Markets Equity at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

White Oak India holds an Investment Advisory License and Portfolio Manager Licence issued by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

The Firm currently provides investment advisory services to Mauritius-domiciled Investment Manager, Acorn Asset Management Ltd (AAML), which is an affiliate of the Firm. AAML manages an offshore fund (India Acorn Fund) and a separate mandate for investments in Indian equity markets.

Acorn Asset Management Ltd (“AAML”) is a private company with limited liability incorporated in June 2017 under the laws of Mauritius, holding a Category 1 Global Business License and a CIS Manager License issued by the Financial Services Commission (“FSC”), Mauritius, and whose principal objective is to conduct business of an investment manager. AAML is 100% owned by White Oak Capital Partners Pte, Singapore (“White Oak Singapore”).

Founder’s Profile
Prior to founding White Oak Capital Management, Prashant Khemka was the CIO and lead portfolio manager of GS India Equity at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) during March 2007 to March 2017, and for the Global Emerging Markets (GEM) Equity during June 2013 to March 2017. As lead PM, he managed all mutual funds and separate accounts under these strategies.

Prashant started his professional investing career in 1998 at SSGA in Boston as senior portfolio officer of Enhanced International equity in the quant group. He started his career at GSAM in 2000 as a research analyst in US Growth Equity, and by virtue of his strong performance and thought leadership on the team, within a short period of four years he rose to become Senior Portfolio Manager and Co-Chair of the Investment Committee by 2004. Prashant returned to Mumbai in 2006 to start GSAM India business and served as the CIO and CEO/Co-CEO of their domestic Asset Management Company. He established and led a strong investment culture on the GSAM India team which resulted in top ranking performance of the GS India fund over the 10-year period ending March 2017 during which time Prashant was the PM. In 2013, in addition to India he was also made the CIO and PM of GEM equity where he replicated the investment culture that he developed and honed in India. The GSAM GEM strategy also generated amongst top ranking performance during June 2013 to March 2017 when Prashant was the PM. He won several accolades as the CIO and Lead PM of GS India Equity and GEM Equity. He and his fund won several awards including AAA rating from Citywire and Elite rating from Fund calibre among others. While Prashant started cultivating elements of his investment philosophy early when he started investing in Indian equities at a young age, he honed it further through college and then at work at SSGA and GSAM US. But at GSAM India he got the opportunity and full authority for the first time to conceptualize and establish all elements of the investment culture in the most comprehensive and coordinated manner. He also achieved outstanding success in replicating the same across the larger GSAM GEM team which was based out of several regional offices with a pre-existing team. Prashant graduated with honours from Mumbai University with a BE in Mechanical Engineering and earned an MBA in Finance from Vanderbilt University where he received full tuition scholarship and research fellowship, as well as the Richard Weinberg scholarship and the Matt Wigginton Leadership Award for outstanding performance in Finance. He was awarded the CFA designation in 2001 and is a fellow of the Ananta Aspen Centre, India.

Business strategy
Our aim is to build a successful investment management organisation on the back of leading performance amongst peer group. The objective is to generate sustained capital appreciation through superior performance over time, with a goal to have the best performance amongst the peer group over any reasonable time frame.