I am a supportive shareholder making helpful suggestions. You are an activist speculator. He is a hostile greenmailer.

There have always been investors all the way along the spectrum of activism. But the more aggressive do seem to be getting bolder.

Efficient Capital Structures – with just 0.0004 per cent of the issued share capital of Vodafone but lashings of chutzpah – achieved widespread headlines last week agitating for the company to gear up its balance sheet and make other reforms.

Nelson Peltz had just 3 per cent of Cadbury-Schweppes but the company announced plans to break itself into separate fizzy drinks and confectionery operations within days of his appearance on the shareholder register.

Analysts yesterday said that a number of UK blue chips looked vulnerable to similar chivvying, including GlaxoSmithKline, Lloyds TSB and Unilever.

One Glaxo shareholder said yesterday it was “wide open” to a similar attack to the Vodafone move. “Unlike Vodafone, Glaxo’s share price is completely on its backside. We’ve been pressing them hard on their dividend policy. They should stop doing buybacks and start looking at the dividend policy.’’ Tero Weckroth, an analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort, said that, by leveraging the Glaxo balance sheet, shareholders could receive a 50 per cent to 75 per cent return from dividends alone by 2015.

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