A Brave New Wo

Former Punahou classmates Ben Wo and Jason Lau began investing together in 2004. photo: Gary Hofheimer

His official title is Bennett R. Wo, vice president of C.S. Wo & Sons Ltd., but perhaps it should be 'Investing Aficionado.' By his own admission, Wo's interest in investing has grown from a pastime to a passion, and he now spends more than three-quarters of his time hunting down, putting together and closing investment deals in everything from local startups to Chinese real estate. "Most people know us as a local furniture retailer, but actually a lot of our money was made when my dad [Robert] formed a manufacturing company in Asia," explains Wo. "It went public and made a ton of paper wealth for the family and we had to start diversifying. So we started investing."

In 1996, the family formed its first investment fund, FiveWoBrothers (named after Ben and his four siblings, Craig "Scott," Michael, Wendell and Robert Jr.), which invested in private equity merchant banking deals around the world. In 1998, they formed the Wo Capital Group.

Both funds utilize top-tier fund managers, keeping the Wos' involvement to little more than handing over the money and making broad portfolio decisions (read: boring for Ben). By 2002, he was making personal investments into local startups and was ready to get his hands dirty with some bigger in-vestments over which he had more control.

In 2004, Wo linked up with former Punahou classmate and fellow UH Angel Jason Lau, who was also doing small personal investments locally and whose family has a history of real estate investing, to create several new investment funds under BJ Capital Management (www.bj-capital.com). The three they've started so far are entirely separate from the Wo family funds, although Ben says the majority of their dozen or so investors are friends and family, which puts him a little on edge. "I don't mind investing my own money or [Wo] family money, because everybody's on the same page," says Ben. "But it's scary to bring in outsiders, because if you lose other people's money, it'll keep you up at night."

Still, Ben's not losing too much sleep. For one thing, most of their local investments are doing quite well (on average, BJ Capital shoots for 25 percent returns), and surprisingly, so is their real estate fund – even though it was formed at the peak of one of Hawaii's hottest real estate markets ever. And secondly, he's having a ton of fun. "The family funds were very passive. But with these funds, Jason and I are actively involved.

We're making the decisions and directly investing in the companies," he says. "You know, some people tell me I'm having a mid-life crisis, but whatever. I just find it fun and rewarding."

Spoken like a true investing aficionado.

>> ONE DECADE, FIVE FUNDS

FiveWoBrothers Formed: 1996 Focus: Private equity merchant banking deals in the U.S., Asia, Europe and Latin America. Portfolio includes medium- to large-size companies. No new investments being considered. Wo Capital Group Formed: 1998 Focus: Private equity deals in the U.S., China merchant banking and China residential real estate. Portfolio includes small- to large-size companies. Still actively making new investments. BJM Partners Formed: 2004 Focus: Early stage Hawaii startups. Capital raised locally and from Japan. Portfolio includes nine investments, most of which are QHTBs. Still actively making new investments. Wo Private Equity Fund IV Formed: 2005 Focus: Fund of funds (four total) that invests in private equity deals in the U.S. One-third of this fund invests in nanotechnology, the other two-thirds invests in medium- to large-size private equity deals in established companies. BJM Properties Formed: 2005 Focus: Invests in, develops and manages real estate, primarily in the Hawaiian Islands. TOTAL VALUE OF ALL FIVE FUNDS: $30 million

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