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The story of young German millionaire entrepreneur Lars Windhorst stands out even in an era when the bosses of Internet companies are often in their early 20s. He founded the company which became the Windhorst Group at the age of 16. Today, it is valued in the hundreds of millions of US dollars, while Mr Windhorst has reached the ripe old age of 23.

He became interested in computers at the age of 14, when his family acquired a personal computer.

It became a full-time hobby once he took the computer apart and became fascinated with how the machine worked and was produced.

He then realised that many of the components came from expensive markets such as Japan and South Korea and could be undercut by buying from manufacturers in Greater China.

To start the company at the age of 16 was not going to be easy -  the start-up capital of 150,000 Deutschemarks (about HK$556,500) was a loan from the bank, but only after his father guaranteed the loan.

Since then Mr Windhorst has not looked back.

The company has grown rapidly and the teenage millionaire has been hailed as a role model for other young German businessmen.

Listening to Mr Windhorst confidently talk about his business on a recent visit to Hong Kong made the whole process of setting up the company sound simple.

The company did not need venture capital in the early stages as revenue and earnings quickly rolled in, he said.

'Until now I have not really got venture capitalists into my company and I still have about 80 per cent of the shares.

'From the beginning we were active in cash-flow businesses where it was quite possible to finance our growth in other ways,' Mr Windhorst said.

The sourcing of the computer components required frequent trips to the mainland - a place which had fascinated Mr Windhorst from an early age.

Many Western companies have experienced problems doing business on the mainland and it would be expected the problems would be much worse for a teenager.

Not so it seems.

Mr Windhorst says his youth helped him in his dealings with businessmen wanting to meet the young entrepreneur.

His youth also made other businessmen relax as someone so young was not expected to pose a threat, Mr Windhorst said.

'When I went to China people were surprised and wanted to meet me,' he said of his first visits to the mainland. 'When you are so young people do not see you as a competitor.'

The experience of entering business and not continuing his education at 16 has so far brought only benefits - especially compared to the new breed of 20-something chief executives created by the Internet revolution.

'I am just 23 and I already have six to seven years' experience behind me - there are not so many young entrepreneurs who have that kind of experience,' he said.

The progress of years since he started his business empire have caused him to have a more long-term outlook - which is more important for a multi-million-dollar concerns growth and prosperity.

'When I was 16 I jumped into the cold water - I followed my instincts,' is how Mr Windhorst describes his early start into business.

'You did not look at the 10-year strategy before - I had to develop in that sense.'

As the business grew and diversified into other areas such as property, precious metals, minerals and manufacturing equipment in Asia, Mr Windhorst set up a Hong Kong office on the 43rd Floor of Central Plaza in Wan Chai.

For a period it looked as though the whizz kid who had won over public opinion in Germany could not put a foot wrong - but for the Asian crisis.

Diversification and expansion left the company exposed to the economic downturn and entailed a period of consolidation and restructuring.

About a third of the businesses outside of technology were kept as a private investment by Mr Windhorst, another third were closed down and the remainder were sold.

In 1996, prior to the Asian economic crisis the tycoon came to prominence in Asia when he planned to build Vietnam's first skyscraper in Ho Chi Minh City.

The economic downturn halted those plans and the site remains undeveloped.

His Hong Kong office was closed, but not before controversy engulfed the company's local affairs. The offices were raided by the police and a bailiff in January 1997 after he was sued for debts.

The writ was issued by a former director of the company, Horst Vetter, in respect of back pay and other unsettled amounts. They came to about HK$130,000, Mr Vetter said at that time.

According to Mr Windhorst the whole issue was blown out of proportion by involving the police and could have been settled with much less publicity after Mr Vetter left the company.

'This guy was not too happy that he had to leave the company. It was a whole joke - under normal circumstances it was not anything that a newspaper would mention,' Mr Windhorst said.

Though he did not offer any explanation as to why Mr Vetter's final payments were delayed, he did concede that the issue could have been handled better. Meanwhile, the company's core business has moved on from building computers to investing in other high-technology sectors  - such as telecommunications and wireless operators, Internet-related stocks and the electronic media. These businesses are conducted under the group's flagship company Windhorst New Technologies.

'There is no doubt that these three areas have the biggest growth potential,' Mr Windhorst said.

'We take both financial positions and an operating role with particular view to their international expansion,' he said.

Windhorst would also leverage on its own experience in Asia as a key component as it helped companies in which it invested expand in the region.

As part of its move to invest in other companies in these areas the company has teamed with locally listed i100 - formerly Acme Landis Holdings - to set up a joint venture, Windhorst Asia. It is expected to be the company's Internet investment flagship in Greater China and Southeast Asia.

Windhorst Asia signed its first two agreements earlier this month. It has entered into a 50:50 joint venture with a German technology firm, Authentidate, which produces programs to verify when electronic data was created and received and who wrote it, to enhance computer security. It also signed an agreement with Digital Inter Relay Communications  - which allows wireless access to the Internet over the last mile to homes and offices. Windhorst Asia will promote both companies' products in the region. It plans to invest US$100 million in the next two years in the region.

The moves to have more joint ventures and partners also reflects a change in the management style of the overall of the group in the years since the Asian crisis triggered its restructuring.

'A few years ago the whole thing was much more dependent on myself,' Mr Windhorst said.

And the initial mistakes from the early start into business will also come under scrutiny.

There are plans in train to list Windhorst New Technologies.

'For our main company we are aiming for a listing in the German market,' Mr Windhorst said.

Mr Windhorst has no plans for early retirement and the time spent building up the business empire has left him with no regrets.

'Until now I do not regret a single moment,' he said.

BIOGRAPHY

Lars Windhorst, 23, is the chairman and founder of the German technology company Windhorst Group. Mr Windhorst started the company in late 1993 when he was 16 years old by building and selling computers with components sourced from the Greater China region. Mr Windhorst was touted as a role model - due to his precocious entrepreneurial flair - with the former German chancellor, Helmut Kohl, urging teenagers to follow his example. In the mid-1990s the company expanded into other sectors such as construction and chemicals but has since scaled down these operations to focus more on its core technology-business. Earlier this year Mr Windhorst's company set up a joint venture with Hong Kong listed i100 to invest in Internet and technology companies in the region.



Early start and Asian crisis have given German entrepreneur an enviable education