Prashant Khemka, an Indian equity veteran who spent 17 years at GSAM before stepping down in April, will launch the fund early next year as part of White Oak Capital Management, the Mumbai-based boutique investment adviser he founded and launched in June this year.
White Oak already runs a Cayman-domiciled fund which focuses on 20 to 40 stocks, largely in the mid-cap space, and has about $100m under management.
According to Prashant, the firm is also awaiting approval to launch a closed-ended version of the fund in the Indian market “in the next 30 to 60 days”, which will have a similar volume of assets at launch as the offshore Cayman equivalent.
Prashant described India as having the “best macro backdrop of any place in the world” and an equity market driven by strong domestic growth and strong corporate profitability, which has translated into robust earnings growth.
In addition, he said the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) in July would ease the process of doing business in India and in turn boost equity markets.
He added GST “replaces the maze of complex tax” India has had to deal with in the past and as a result, the country has taken “a big leap in reducing the difficulty of doing business”.
Prashant said: “Entrepreneurs can now focus on business rather than on tax.”
