Wealth management firm White Oak Capital gets SEBI’s nod to enter mutual fund business

• White Oak Capital’s wholly owned subsidiary GPL Finance and Investments had acquired YES Asset Management Company last year.
• On Thursday, the subsidiary received the nod from regulator SEBI to become the sponsor of YES MF.
• With this, India will now have four new fund houses coming up soon -- Groww, Zerodha, Samco MF and White Oak Capital.

Wealth management firm White Oak Capital has received approval from India’s market regulator to get started with the mutual fund business after it acquired YES Mutual Fund (MF) last year.

In September 2020, the investment management firm had bought YES MF from YES Bank, which was struggling with bad loans and raising fresh capital.

The transaction will be completed in the next few weeks.

GPL Finance and Investments, White Oak Capital’s wholly owned subsidiary, received Securities and Exchange Board of India’s nod to become the sponsor to the newly owned AMC. Sponsor can be seen as the promoter of the associate company.

YES MF is the smallest amongst the 44 fund houses in the ₹36 trillion industry with ₹81.45 crore average assets under management (AUM) as of June quarter, according to the Association of Mutual Funds in India.

Commenting on the development, Prashant Khemka, founder at White Oak Capital said, “We have instituted a performance-first culture at our firm, earning the confidence of investors globally who have entrusted us with assets of over ₹40,000 crores in the past four years. We are excited about offering our investment expertise to retail investors across the country.”

Khemka is the former chief investment officer (CIO) and lead portfolio manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Aashish P Somaiyaa, who will be taking over as chief executive officer of the AMC said, “We continue to build a seasoned team of industry professionals to provide best in class investment products to retail investors. We will look forward to covering India well beyond the metro cities including B30 locations, to achieve higher inclusivity through omni-channel presence across physical, virtual and digital channels.” B30 cities include tier II and tier III cities.

Last week, Samco MF, an online discount broker, announced its entry into the mutual fund business. With this, India will now have four new fund houses coming up soon -- Groww, Zerodha, Samco MF and White Oak Capital.

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