The activist group stalking Vodafone began a series of meetings with key shareholders yesterday even as it prepared to drop one of its radical break-up resolutions.

Efficient Capital Structures (ECS) said that it was prepared to “withdraw support” for its demand for Vodafone to seek special approval from shareholders for acquisitions valued at more than £1 billion.

The group, led by John Mayo, the executive embroiled in the collapse of Marconi, indicated some institutions felt the demand was “a step too far”.

Vodafone investors – including M&G Investment Management, which is its third-biggest shareholder, Insight and Morley Fund Management – have publicly backed the mobile giant against ECS’s plans, which include forcing it to spin off its 45 per cent interest in Verizon Wireless, its US joint venture, and taking on additional debt of £34 billion.

However ECS, funded in part by Beehive Capital, Mr Mayo’s limited liability strategic financial advice company, claims to have secured meetings with two top-five investors and other smaller investors.

One top15 institution said: “We are holding a conference call with them. It does not do any harm to heighten the awareness of management sitting in the boardroom to be focused on shareholders first.” Vodafone, which is also meeting investors, as part of a postresults roadshow, is thought to have expected institutions to hear out ECS’s analysis.

ECS has conceded that Beehive Capital holds an undisclosed number of Vodafone options beyond the 210,000 shares it acquired to enable it to table its resolutions.

At the weekend the group, which will put its resolutions at Vodafone’s annual meeting on July 24, insisted it had received clearance from the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the City regulator.

However, the FSA emphasised that it does not give “a green light” to any transaction. It said: “We provide guidance to firms on what rules may apply in certain situations.”

Goldman Sachs yesterday raised its price target on Vodafone on the assumption of a greater than expected dividend payout from Verizon Wireless.

Arun Sarin, Vodafone’s chief executive, has said that the “logical time” for dividend payouts to resume from Verizon Wireless is “in the next couple of years” when the venture’s $12 billion debt is paid down.

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