WhiteOak Capital plans D-Street foray with Rs 1,500 crore IPO

New Delhi: Former Goldman Sachs executive Prashant Khemka's WhiteOak Capital is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) of shares that could raise as much as Rs 1,500 crore, as per people aware of the matter.

WhiteOak Capital, which manages about $13 billion in assets, could be targeting a Rs 9,000 crore valuation on listing, as per people aware of the matter. It was founded by Khemka in 2017 after he quit Goldman Sachs. WhiteOak Capital's proposed IPO comes as a growing number of alternative investment managers tap the public markets to raise capital.

Gaja Alternative Asset Management, which operates as Gaja Capital, listed on the stock exchanges on August 26, becoming the first private equity investor in India to go public. Its IPO raised Rs 550 crore, including a Rs 450 crore fresh issue Abakkus Asset Manager, founded by stock market investor Sunil Singhania, also filed a draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) on September 22 for an IPO that will entirely comprise an offer-for-sale by its promoter.


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Khemka confirmed WhiteOak had a public listing plan in an emailed response to ET's queries. "Our unique firm is being built and managed by outstanding professionals. In the long- term interest of attracting and retaining talent to perpetualise its position as India's pioneering multinational asset manager, the firm does envisage going public at some point," he said.

"The firm continues to have healthy profitability, and while an IPO is on the strategic agenda, there are no definite timelines," he said. WhiteOak Capital houses funds domiciled both in India and overseas. These funds are investors in Indian equities but also have some emerging markets exposure.

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Khemka ran a $25-billion portfolio of listed US equities as a fund manager for Goldman Sachs before he relocated to India in 2006 to start its investment management business for emerging markets and India. When he left, he had built up a $5 billion portfolio of investments for the firm.

IPO Preparations

The company's preparations for an initial public offering are said to have started a few months ago.

Ministry of corporate affairs records show that WhiteOak Capital had passed board resolutions in December last year to increase authorised share capital by almost fivefold. Its authorised share capital increased to Rs 1,275 crore from Rs 275 crore. A few months prior to that, an employee stock option pool was also created

WhiteOak Capital Group managed $13.36 billion in assets as of August 31, with international assets accounting for 57% of the total. Its domestic assets include mutual funds, alternative investment funds (AIFs) and discretionary portfolio management services (PMS).

Its domestic mutual fund business had assets under management (AUM) of Rs 46,490 crore, while its PMS business, launched in 2018, had AUM of Rs 3,156 crore. The company also manages Rs 4,937 crore through five Category III AIFs.

Khemka stepped down from Goldman Sachs to set up his own investment firm at around the same time that a number of senior executives at global financial services firms were also striking out on their own in India.

The list included former Standard Chartered Bank Asia CEO Jaspal Bindra, who founded Centrum Group; Bhupinder Singh, who launched InCred after leaving Deutsche Bank; and Gunit Chadha, who quit as Deutsche Bank’s Asia-Pacific CEO to start APAC Financial Services.

Through its AIFs, WhiteOak has invested in new-age companies including Fractal Analytics, KreditBee and furniture rental company Furlenco, which has kickstarted the process of going public, ET reported on September 22. Its funds also participate in pre-IPO anchor investment rounds.