A resident of Hong Kong since being transferred there by Barclays plc in 1991, the British-born Webb made his name and fortune spotting investments in the city’s notoriously volatile small- and mid-cap market. He railed against the city’s monopolies and tycoon-dominated industries, even gaining a board seat at bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEX), where his dissection of operations meant meetings ran at least an hour longer than average, according to fellow director Oscar Wong.
(Jan 13): David Webb, Hong Kong’s most vocal activist investor whose investigations into corporate malfeasance triggered regulatory probes and made him a celebrity in the city’s financial industry, has died. He was 60.
Webb passed away peacefully in Hong Kong on Jan 13 from metastatic prostate cancer, according to a statement on his official X account. Diagnosed in 2020, he said in February that he might have only months more to live.
