Underperforming European companies should prepare themselves for a new era of shareholder activism. Guy Wyser-Pratte, a US activist investor who takes positions in European companies, thinks the climate for activism in Europe is improving. He says: 'It's making slow progress, but progress nonetheless.'

European companies that cling on to introspective or defensive governance structures that keep bad management in place will find themselves under attack from increasingly confident institutional investors, he says. 'You're going to have assault waves coming down to breach these feudal castles.'