Cevian Capital has told insurer Aviva PLC (LON:AV.) to return £5bn to shareholders following the recent sales of the majority of its overseas operations.
The activist investor has taken a near 5% stake in the group and said it wants a big improvement in the performance of the FTSE 100 member.
"Aviva has been poorly managed for many years, and its high-quality core businesses have been held back by high costs and a series of bad strategic decisions," Christer Gardell, managing partner and co-founder of Cevian said in a statement.
Gardell added that within three years Aviva should have a share price of more than £8 per share and be paying a dividend of 45p or double the current payout while its cost-cutting plans should be raised to at least £500mln by 2023.
Aviva has proposed savings of £300mln by 2022 as part of a widespread restructuring undertaken by new chief executive Amanda Blanc that has seen it retrench back to its operations in the UK, Ireland and Canada.
Blanc has sold eight businesses to raise £7.5bn but has not yet given a figure on how much of that will be handed back other than to say it plans a return to shareholders.
Shares in Aviva rose by 3.4% to 425p
"Aviva has made significant strategic progress over the past 11 months and we remain sharply focused on further improving our performance," an Aviva spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.