At least 20 Hong Kong listed companies fell in trading on Friday morning after a prominent activist investor charted out their links to China Minsheng Bank and Beijing-based bad debt manager Huarong, whose chairman was charged with corruption earlier this week.
The online post by David Webb targeting 26 companies is the second in a year and a half that has taken on the risks underlying vast cross-shareholdings of companies mainly listed in Hong Kong.
Mr Webb’s charting of a tangled network of 50 companies in May 2017, which he dubbed the “enigma network”, was a precursor to $6bn market crash in the following month. Many of the stocks in the named companies dove in unison. Some fell by more than 95 per cent and Hong Kong's corruption watchdog and securities regulator eventually launched a joint investigation into the matter.