Fund managers are beginning to act like responsible business owners

There are signs that the world’s big shareholders are finally grasping that, as the technical owners of listed companies, they have long-term financial and social responsibilities, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

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A coalition of investors is hoping to end the routine use of antibiotics in chickens
(Image credit: © 2015 Bloomberg Finance LP)

Are the world's big shareholders finally grasping that, as the technical owners of listed companies, they have long-term financial and social responsibilities? There are a few signs.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.