Different shades of activists shaking Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - Activist investors have revolutionized the corporate landscape in Europe in the past few years. From TCI and its clamor for change at ABN AMRO leading to the bank's sale, to Algebris's recent demands at Italian insurer Generali.

With their apt use of the media to spread their view and galvanize fellow-shareholders, pressuring on managements they view as contravening shareholder interest, they have shaken up Europe's boardrooms.

But is it just them?

Behind the scenes, other shareholders have been pulling strings in a more discreet way, for which there is now a new term -- the "suggestivist" investors.

"Some of the hedge funds who don't want to be positioned as difficult, hard-ass activists have said to me: 'well, I'd rather be known as a suggestivist, I do it a bit more behind the scenes," Huw van Steenis, Morgan Stanley's head of European banks and financials research said at the Reuters Finance Summit.

"We're getting a gradation of activists out there."

Lacking the high-profile media punch, they try to operate behind the scenes, influencing management and staying below the public radar until absolutely necessary.

And while activist investors de facto take credit for the change they bring about, the shrinking violet suggestivist is happy to stay in the shadows to discreetly reap the rewards of their work.

(Reporting by Mathieu Robbins and Richard Barley; Editing by Greg Mahlich)