Activist investor Cevian Capital has lifted its stake in insurer Aviva PLC (LSE:AV.) (LSE:AV.) to just above 5% putting more pressure on the company's board.
Cevian revealed a 4.95% shareholding in June and said it wanted Aviva to return £5bn of excess capital to shareholders.
Earlier this month the insurer said it would return cash, but indicated a figure closer to £4bn.
Cevian said that was "a good start" but was not enough "to address the overcapitalisation" of the company.
Aviva has cash to hand out following a whirlwind £7.5bn disposal programme that has seen it pare down its global operation to just the UK, Ireland and Canada.
Those disposals enabled the insurer to repay £2bn in debt in the first half of the year, with a further £1.7bn to follow.
When it announced its stake in June, Cevian said that in addition to a £5bn return of capital, it wanted to see £500mln of cost savings (against a company target of £300mln), a doubling of the dividend to 45p and a share price of £8 within three years.
Aviva shares today were up 0.3% at 420.8p.