Company leaders became sufficiently concerned by the heightened level and aggressive nature of shareholder activism last year that they scheduled "peace talks" with leading institutional investors.

At a series of dinners, top company and investor representatives met to rebuild relations after some bruising clashes at ITV, J Sainsbury, Royal Dutch Shell and BSkyB. The meetings appear to have been a success, but if company executives and directives think the pace of activism is set to slow, they should think again.