NEW YORK, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Irth Capital Management,

the global alternative asset management firm that invests in

both public and private equity, plans to raise a new investment

vehicle with the goal of gently but firmly influencing

companies, two sources told Reuters.

The new vehicle aims to become a "constructivist" hedge fund

where the team will pursue a strategy of suggesting changes to

company management and later supporting their strategic

transformations and capital needs, the sources said.

It is not clear how much money Irth is trying to raise for

the new vehicle but sources said the amount is what the firm's

founders consider to be strategic to their contemplated

investments.

The new strategy will be led by Mack Abbot, who will join

Irth in New York as a managing director and Head of

Constructivism.

Abbot previously worked at activist hedge fund Starboard

Value where he led corporate governance research, directed

campaign strategy in contested situations and supported

portfolio company boards. Before that, he was a member of the

Americas stewardship team at investment firm BlackRock ( BLK ).

Irth and Abbot did not respond to email requests for

comment.

Irth was co-founded by Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulla Al Thani,

who had been director of the Americas and Business Development

for the Qatar Investment Authority, and Matthew Bradshaw, who

founded Durational Capital Management and before that was a

portfolio manager at hedge fund Millennium Partners.

Investors that push companies to perform better, often

called activists, are having a revival of fortunes with both

established blue chip agitators like Elliott Investment

Management and Starboard Value and newcomers flexing their

muscle and pushing for various improvements.

In the first seven months of 2025, activist investors, on

average, returned 4.8%, making a strong comeback after the

average fund lost 3.2% in the first three months of the year.

Irth's only current publicly disclosed investment is in Papa

John's, where it teamed up with Apollo Global

Management and approached the U.S. pizza chain to possibly take

it private.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)