The sudden death this week of a prominent Hong Kong entrepreneur has left eight listed companies scrambling to fill vacant board seats, highlighting how many board seats in the city are held by a small clutch of well-known local businessmen.

Peter Wong Man-kong, who died on Monday, held seven independent non-executive director jobs at a number of large corporations, including casino operator MGM China, real estate developer Sun Hung Kai, hotelier Sino Hotels and oil and gas group New Times Energy. He was also a non-executive director at Hong Kong Ferry, which operates passenger ferries.

The fallout has shone a spotlight on “overboarding” — involving one person sitting on more than six boards — an issue that investors globally have long complained is bad for governance at listed companies as it often means independent non-executive directors have little time to pay attention to individual companies.