March 6 (Reuters) - A former partner at ValueAct Capital

Management, one of Wall Street's best known activist investment

firms, will start his own firm, according to people familiar

with the matter, marking one of the most high profile activist

firm launches in years.

Dylan Haggart, who was responsible for ValueAct's

investments in private equity firm KKR, investment bank Morgan

Stanley ( MS ) and media company The New York Times ( NYT ) and

serves on the boards of financial technology company Fiserv ( FI )

and data storage company Seagate Technology ( STX ), has

formed a new firm called Fivespan Partners, the people said.

Haggart left ValueAct last year after spending 10 years at

the San Francisco-based investment firm.

Fivespan, named for a landmark bridge in Haggart's hometown

outside of Ottawa, Canada, is expected to begin making

investments in the second half of 2024 and will be based in San

Francisco, said the sources who were not permitted to speak

publicly about the private firm's plans.

It plans to concentrate on mid-sized companies with chances

to grow and work with management teams and boards to help them

improve operations and capital structures to make them more

valuable, the sources said.

Haggart did not return a call for comment.

The new launch is among the most notable in the activist

investor space since Jeffrey Ubben, who founded ValueAct,

started Inclusive Capital Partners four years ago and Ed Garden

left Trian Investment Management last year to invest his

personal fortune through Garden Investments.

Fivespan will begin operations at a time activists are

finding fresh favor with investors as many have helped push

share prices higher by working with management to make companies

perform better. Investors are now rewarding companies that are

transforming themselves to be more profitable, allocate capital

well, and focus on what matters to shareholders.

Last year, the average activist investor, returned 18%

according to Hedge Fund Research data, with some firms posting

gains of twice that while the broader market rallied over 24%.

After a decade at ValueAct, Haggart embodies his old firm's

hallmarks of staying out of the limelight and trying to work

collaboratively with management, people who know him said. He

rarely speaks at industry conferences and does not give

interviews but is readily available to a target company's

executives for advice and guidance, they added.

The new firm plans to create a portfolio with six to 10

investments at a time, the sources said.

Sarah Coyne, who worked with Haggart as a partner at

ValueAct and also left in 2023, will be a managing partner at

Fivespan, the sources said.

Two other former ValueAct employees, Margarita Krivitski and

Andrew Fraga, and Chris Kelly, who previously worked at Voyager

Global Management, will join the investment team.

Carly Pollock, a seasoned hedge fund industry executive,

will be the new firm's chief operating officer, chief financial

officer and chief compliance officer, the people said.