Investor activism in Europe could be entering a new “golden age”: So says professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) in a new report, which says that as many as 148 companies on the continent could face attacks from activist shareholders over the next 12 months, up 10% from its previous forecast in April.

For the uninitiated, activist investors might not be what you imagine: Rather than being the types to organize sit-ins at head office or join the local Greenpeace flotilla, shareholder activists are merely people who buy stakes in companies with the intention of influencing how the company is run. Pressuring a company to behave more ethically can be a motive, but activism tends to be used more by heavyweight investors such as hedge funds and private equity firms to improve the share price of weaker companies. Think Paul Singer’s Elliott Management, Daniel Loeb’s Third Point, and Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square.

ESG is becoming a bigger concern for investors, though: A&M finds that companies with low social and environmental scores are likely to be more susceptible to attacks in the coming year, noting that the percentage of targeted companies facing environmental or social campaigns has risen to 37% this year, up from just 8% three years ago.

“The potential for reputational damage and subsequent financial damage has never been higher,” said Malcolm McKenzie, managing director of A&M. “Boards are now facing the prospect of multi-activist attacks and are unable to unravel a Gordian knot of multiple demands. As COP26 in Glasgow moves to COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, even brighter lights will shine on polluting and anti-social behaviours and those corporates considered complicit.”

Larger companies are more at-risk: Activists will be shifting their focus to fewer but larger companies over the coming 12-18 months, with targets having an average market capital of EUR 20.2 bn from this year’s EUR 16.9 bn and last year’s EUR 12.3 bn. The UK is likely to be the most targeted market, with 21 companies vulnerable to attacks due to lower valuations and heightened interest by private equity groups.

Shell is one company that has come under attack in recent months; Third Point is trying to pressure oil giant Shell to break itself up, splitting its “legacy” oil and gas business from its renewables and LNG operations. “Pursuing a bold strategy like this would likely lead to an acceleration of CO2 reduction as well as significantly increased returns for shareholders, a [victory] for all stakeholders,” the fund wrote in a letter to shareholders seen by the Financial Times.

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JUST FOR FUN- The global guardians of emojis have unveiled the top 10 of 2021: ???? ❤️ ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? — in that order — were the most frequently used emojis worldwide this year, according to data published by the Unicode Consortium, the organization in charge of maintaining the standard for how text, symbols and emojis are digitally encoded on the web. There are a total of 3,663 emojis available for use and Unicode regularly adds new ones or reviews old ones, and data like this helps envision what people will use or won’t use.

It also gives a sense of the times. Sort of. In 2021, the “Pleading Face” emoji (????) inexplicably jumped 83 spots to no. 14, meanwhile despite the continued spread of covid-19, pandemic-related emojis weren’t popular within social media escapism. The data also breaks down the emojis into categories to determine which is the most used within each one. ???? is the most common animal emoji while ???? tops the food category. As for the least popular category, we weren’t too surprised to learn that flags came last.