Hong Kong activist investor David Webb, a champion of market transparency, has died aged 60 after a battle with cancer, leaving a legacy of corporate scrutiny.
HONG KONG: Activist investor David Webb, a prominent campaigner for market transparency and democratic accountability in Hong Kong, has died aged 60.
A statement posted on his social media confirmed he passed away peacefully from metastatic prostate cancer.
The statement said he would be missed by family, friends and supporters, who requested privacy.
Webb was championed by retail investors as a rare outlier in a corporate world known for vested interests.
His online database, Webb-site, was an invaluable resource for regulators and journalists for decades until its shutdown last year.
In a 2024 interview, Webb told AFP his ethos could be summed up in one word: “fairness”.
He believed in giving people all relevant information and the power to make their own choices.
Webb revealed his cancer diagnosis in 2020 and was awarded an MBE last year for his contributions to Hong Kong.
Born in Britain, he moved to Hong Kong in 1991 and retired from investment banking seven years later.
“Having already made enough money to be financially secure, I was more interested in leaving some mark on the system than just dying rich,” he told AFP.
He founded his non-profit website in 1998 to track the financial sector.
His greatest triumph was a 2017 expose of the “Enigma Network”, involving cross-shareholdings in 50 listed companies.
The ensuing crash wiped out USD 6 billion in market value.
Webb served on Hong Kong’s Takeovers and Mergers Panel and as an independent director of the stock exchange operator.
He told AFP he often ran up against vested interests but did not consider himself at war with anybody.
A Hong Kong permanent resident, he believed the city’s success was its “differentiation” from mainland China.
He addressed pro-democracy demonstrators during the 2014 Umbrella Movement, speaking in favour of a “free market in leadership”.
Webb also criticised Hong Kong authorities during the city’s 2019 pro-democracy protests.
In one of his last public appearances in May 2025, he warned that rising authoritarianism threatened Hong Kong’s core economic model.
Looking back, he told reporters he was certain he would stay in Hong Kong.
“I wanted to make a contribution… I will die confident that I did my best.”
