Mark Mobius, pioneering emerging-market investor and China bull, dies at 89

Mark Mobius, who was known as the father of emerging markets and was among the first fund managers to invest in Hong Kong and mainland China, died on Wednesday at the age of 89, according to a statement on his LinkedIn account.

The statement did not give the cause. Mobius was based in Dubai in recent years and remained active in investment via his own firm. He was managing director of Mobius Emerging Opportunities Fund.

Mobius remained bullish on China throughout his career. In his last interview with the South China Morning Post in November 2024 – for the 10th anniversary of the Stock Connect scheme for bidirectional, cross-border trading – he highlighted Hong Kong’s role as a connector between mainland China and the world.

“The Stock Connect system is better than the QFII [qualified foreign institutional investor programme] since it is easier and requires no specific approvals,” Mobius said. “We have been seeing more Chinese stocks pop up in our scans since the launch of the connect scheme.”

Mobius was never an office-bound investor, preferring for decades to conduct on-site research in China and many emerging markets – a habit that continued into his old age.

Such first-hand experiences helped him see opportunities in China that many of his peers missed. In February 2024, he said China stocks were “not attractive”. But a month later, after a trip to southern China where he saw signs of recovery due to government support measures, he said he believed they were “beginning to look good”.