THE activist group seeking to push through radical changes at the mobile-phone giant Vodafone has won the backing of a string of leading fund managers, including Jupiter and Invesco Perpetual.

The support of two of the UK’s most respected fund managers will heap pressure on Vodafone and its chief executive, Arun Sarin, ahead of its annual meeting on Tuesday.

Efficient Capital Structures, the activist group, has called on Vodafone to return £38 billion to investors. ECS is demanding Vodafone gears up its balance sheet by issuing new bonds and spins off its 45% stake in the American mobile-phone company Verizon Wireless.

Some of ECS’s proposals are also understood to have won the support of Calpers, the giant California state pension fund, and Calyon, the French group. ECS also gained support from American investors after Glass Lewis, an influential corporate-governance group, came out in favour of its proposals a week ago.

In total, ECS is thought to have won over investors who own about 10% of Vodafone’s shares. Although its proposals stand little chance of being passed, many of the rebel shareholders believe that ECS has encouraged a crucial debate about the value of Verizon to Vodafone.

“There is merit in the ECS plans,” said one shareholder. “The wider point is that by supporting ECS we are saying Sarin should have a mandate for change.”

Jupiter and Invesco Perpetual declined to comment. Vodafone dismissed ECS’s proposals last month while Sarin and Sir John Bond, his chairman, have turned down requests from the activist group for a meeting.

Last week, Sarin admitted the Verizon investment was not paying the returns it could.

A source close to ECS said: “We have done what we set out to do and created a debate.”

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