WhiteOak PMS
PMSIME's View on WhiteOak PMS
AMC View
Founded by a highly credible CIO with strong investment credentials and a solid research team, White Oak offers a reliable alternative investment option for long-term capital deployment.
AMC Pedigree
White Oak's strong investment pedigree is founded on the expertise of its founder, Prashant Khemka, and further reinforced by significant investments in building a top-tier research team. WhiteOak is a truly global investments firm, with ~70% of its assets being India Offshore.
Team Pedigree
Prashant Khemka is arguably one of the most pedigreed fund managers in the Indian alternatives space (with extensive experience in Goldman Sachs AMC, which he left as CIO & Lead PM for both their India & Global Emerging Market funds). Prashant's strong pedigree comes from his extensive experience at Goldman, his ability to scale both the India & GEM funds into ~$2.5 bn funds each, and the strong longer-term outperformance to benchmarks delivered by both these strategies. The research team supporting Prashant is highly experienced, and the firm's founder also serves as the CIO, ensuring long-term stability in investment processes.
Investment Philosophy
White Oak follows a proven strategy of investing in high-quality businesses at good prices, which has consistently generated strong returns for Prashant during his time at Goldman Sachs.
PMS Background
Founded in June 2017, White Oak PMS is a relatively young platform that has scaled rapidly to become one of the largest and most respected PMS houses in India. This growth has been driven primarily by the undisputed investment pedigree of its founder and CIO, Prashant Khemka, who previously served as CIO and Lead Portfolio Manager for Goldman Sachs India Equity and Global Emerging Markets Equity strategies. During his tenure at Goldman Sachs, these strategies delivered substantial and consistent outperformance versus benchmarks while scaling to multi-billion-dollar AUM, establishing Prashant as one of the most credible global investors in Indian equities. Since inception, White Oak has invested significantly in building a deep and seasoned research organisation, with a senior analyst bench averaging over a decade of experience, supported by a broader analyst team. The combination of founder pedigree, institutional-quality research depth, and clearly articulated processes has enabled White Oak to scale credibility and assets at a pace rarely seen among independent PMS platforms.
PMS Investment Philosophy
Outsized Returns Through Great Businesses at Attractive Valuations
- Great Businesses: Focus on well-managed companies with scalable long-term opportunities, strong returns on incremental capital, robust execution capabilities, and consistent governance standards.
- Attractive Valuations: Emphasis on identifying situations where estimated intrinsic value is materially higher than prevailing market prices.
- Stock-Centric Approach: Investment decisions are driven by bottom-up stock analysis rather than macro forecasting.
- Avoidance of Red Flags: Systematic exclusion of businesses with governance concerns, weak incremental ROCEs, or structural obsolescence risks.
- Limited Macro Bets: Macro variables are treated as sources of random risk rather than alpha; portfolios remain fully invested with balanced construction, avoiding market timing and aggressive sector rotation.
Strong Investment Culture
White Oak’s investment culture is shaped by a team of local experts with extensive global experience, operating within a performance-driven framework that aligns closely with client outcomes. The firm follows time-tested processes anchored in disciplined fundamental research, including a proprietary Opco–Finco analytical framework refined over more than two decades. Stock selection remains firmly bottom-up, with the objective of buying high-quality businesses at attractive valuations, while portfolio construction is designed to balance conviction with diversification and minimise reliance on top-down macro calls.
Investment Process
- Universe Screening: The process begins with a broad investible universe of approximately 750 companies with market capitalisation above USD 150 million, which is narrowed to a subset of around 150 businesses that meet White Oak’s quality criteria.
- Portfolio Construction: From this refined universe, the portfolio is constructed with roughly 30–50 stocks assessed to be trading at attractive valuations.
- Analytical Framework: The process is driven by a structured and time-tested workflow covering idea generation, deep fundamental analysis, conviction-based sizing, and continuous monitoring and evaluation.
Suitable For
Investors seeking relatively consistent, lower-risk equity returns through a diversified PMS platform that emphasises strong business fundamentals, valuation discipline, and institutionally robust research and portfolio construction processes.
Investment team
Prashant Khemka | 5-star rated FM
Founder & CIO | 28 yrs Experience | 9 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: Goldman AMC (CIO - Global EM Fund), State Street Global (FM)
Prashant founded WhiteOak in 2017 with an impeccable investment track record. Prashant was the CIO & Lead Fund Manager for the Goldman Sachs India Equity & Global Emerging Market Funds. These funds have won multiple global awards and accolades for consistent investment performance. Over Prashant's tenure GS India Equity scaled to a $2.5 bn fund from scratch (delivering 266% gross returns vs 66% for the benchmark), while GS GEM scaled from $675 mn to $2.6 bn (with a 36% gross US $ return vs 13.1% for the benchmark).
Recommended Funds
White Oak India Equity AIF
White Oak Pioneers Equity
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