UK activist investor TCI Fund Management is threatening to call a shareholder vote for the removal of the London Stock Exchange Group's chairman if the exchange operator’s chief executive Xavier Rolet isn’t allowed to stay in his role beyond the end of 2018.

The move serves as the latest example of investor activism in Europe with companies such as Swiss chemicals producer Clariant, consumer-goods giant Nestlé, Dutch paint company Akzo Nobel and London-based miner BHP Billiton all facing high-profile tussles with shareholders agitating for change.