Hong Kong Regulator Names Muckraker Webb to Committee (Correct)
By Joshua Fellman
Hong Kong Regulator Names Muckraker Webb to Committee (Correct)
(Corrects Webb's former employer in final paragraph of story that originally ran April 6.)
Hong Kong, April 6 (Bloomberg) -- David Webb, a former investment banker whose muckraking Web site is a widely read appraisal of how Hong Kong companies are managed, was appointed to a major committee by the city's securities regulator.
In a signal the markets watchdog may be tightening its rules enforcement, the Securities and Futures Commission said Webb will sit on its takeover and mergers panel and its corollary appeals committee.
``I'm obviously pleased,'' said Webb, now an independent investor. ``I think it's important the SFC should involve more investors in the regulatory process, where in past they've been under-represented.''
Webb started his Webb-site.com newsletter in 1998 because he said he wasn't happy with the standards of corporate governance in Asia. ``I thought the best place to start was Hong Kong,'' he said of his newsletter.
One of his most persistent targets has been Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd., now Hong Kong's dominant phone company, started by Richard Li, son of billionaire Li Ka-shing. Webb was among the early skeptics about the company's valuation, predicting it would topple. CyberWorks shares have plummeted 83 percent in the last 12 months.
Webb joins six other new appointments on the securities panels: David Graham, managing director Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Asia Ltd.; Gavin Nesbitt, a partner in Deacons law firm; Patricia Shih, a consultant with Johnson Stokes & Master; Frank Slevin, vice chairman, BNP Paribas Peregrine Capital Ltd.; and Carlson Tong, a partner in KPMG.
Webb said he would like to use his membership to push for a change in the rules governing at which point the buyer of a large stake in a company is required to make a general offer for all the company's shares.
That level, currently 35 percent, should be reduced to ``something more sensible,'' he said, noting that a 34.9 percent stake is often large enough to control a company.
The appointment won't interfere in the publication of the online newsletter or with lobbying for the creation of a semi- official Hong Kong Association of Minority Shareholders to protect the rights of non-management stockholders, Webb said.
His last job was with Wheelock & Co., which invests in real estate and in telecommunications, transport and cable television through its Wharf (Holdings) Ltd. unit.
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