BY DIANA LIEBERMAN
The
China
Thirty-year-old
entrepreneur stakes his
uture on e Shanghai
puon
Aaron Boesky, center, with his staff, from left, Analyst Bobo Tang, Fund
Manager Chris Tang, Fund Manager Lewis Wan and Analyst Sean Li
1 ' \
._ _
A
aron Boesky uses a lot of
superlatives when he talks
about China.
With a population of 1.3 billion,
the country has "the single fastest
economic growth rate of any nation on
written record," he says. Its people
are "fiercely motivated" and are "qui-
etly making a fortune out of the
American economy and the world."
But what it all boils down to is this:
Boesky, a native of Huntington
Woods who now lives in Hong Kong,
is betting his future that China will be
the premier economic power of the
future — and he wants to bring lots of
American investors along with him.
The 30-year-old founder of the
Marco Polo Pure China Fund was
back in Metro Detroit for Passover
and again in mid-May, reconnecting
with family and reporting on the
progress of his year-old investment
firm.
6 • AUGUST 2005 • JNPLATINUM
"There are 1,370 companies listed
on the Shanghai Stock Exchange,"
he explains. "We find those compa-
nies that have the potential for
growth. We are going to invest in
them before their names are on
everybody's lips."
Names such as HiSense
Electronics, Petro China and the
ZTE Corporation, China's largest
telecom company, will soon become
household words, Boesky predicts.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange
began only 15 years ago. Boesky's
company is the first hedge fund to
invest primarily and directly in com-
panies that are denominated in
Chinese currency, which has begun
what appears to be a steady rate of
inflation.
"We are the first to get involved in
this," Boesky says, "and that's what is
so exciting about the whole opera-
tion."
THE CHINA BUG
Boesky comes from a family of entre-
preneurs and businessmen.
Maternal grandfather Edward
Rosenberg, a Detroit philanthropist
and real estate investor, is his "hero
and mentor."
The Boesky family, known locally
for founding the Boesky's Deli and
Brass Rail restaurants, received
unlooked-for national notoriety when
Detroit-born securities trader Ivan
Boesky received a 3 1/2 -year prison
sentence in 1987 for insider trading.
Ivan Boesky is a first cousin of
Aaron's father.
"Ivan is actually a hero in Chinese
finance," Aaron Boesky said. "I had a
good response in China about the cor-
relation of my name. Although he
made mistakes, anyone he worked
with did well."
The younger Boesky's journey to
China began after a "soul-draining"
experience in Detroit real estate. A
graduate of Michigan State
University's Eli Broad College of
Business, he decided to go back to
school to become a history teacher.
"I had to fill a hole in my prerequi-
sites for the master's program at
Oakland University and took Chinese
modern history," he said. "I got what
we call in Asia 'the China bug.'"
After taking all Oakland Universi-
ty's Chinese studies courses, he went
on to St. Giles International Center in
San Francisco, an affiliate of
England's Cambridge University, and
to Beijing Foreign Affairs College.
Along with Chris Tang, a Chinese
native who then worked as an auditor
at PricewaterhouseCoopers U.S.A., he
took a four-week tour of China in 2003,
looking at investment opportunities.
"Every deal I saw, I was uncom-
fortable with," he said. "I would be in
a situation I couldn't control."