2025 Sohn Montreal: FiveSpan Partners’ Dylan Haggart – Realizing Private Market Discounts with Two High-Quality Opportunities

At the 2025 Sohn Montreal Conference, Dylan Haggart, Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner of Fivespan Partners, discussed two underappreciated companies in the life sciences tools and billboard advertising industries where dislocation, operational levers, and shareholder engagement offer asymmetric upside.

• Background: He typically works privately with management teams and boards. Dylan Haggart has personal ties to Canada, being from Ottawa with strong family connections to Montreal. He co-founded FiveSpan with Sarah.
• Firm Focus: FiveSpan's investment framework centers on conviction, optionality, and realizable private market discounts, seeking high-quality companies with entrenched market positions, strong recurring cash flows, and asymmetrical upside.
• Time at Firm: As co-founder, he has been with FiveSpan since its creation.

2025 Sohn Montreal Conference - FiveSpan Partners' Dylan Haggart

Introduction

• Dylan Haggart, Chief Investment Officer at FiveSpan, begins by thanking the Sohn Foundation and acknowledging the effort behind the event.
• Emphasizes the rarity of FiveSpan discussing investments publicly, as they typically work privately with management teams and boards.
• Notes personal ties to Canada: both he and co-founder Sarah are Canadian, from Ottawa, with strong family ties to Montreal.
• Frames the presentation around:
  • An investment framework suitable for the current confusing market environment
  • Two specific investment ideas from their portfolio

Market context and framework

• Describes the current market as confusing: started with solid growth and momentum, but shifted due to significant volatility.
• Stagflation is being mentioned for the first time in his career.
• Growth outlook is deteriorating; visibility on economic cycles is worse than ever.
• Rates remain a key risk, especially for inflated valuations.
• Volatility is mostly political, not economically driven.
• M&A market is reopening but driven by strategic interest, not broad-based recovery.
• Their base case: continued economic confusion.

Investment philosophy

• Belief: best time to invest is always now, especially during dislocation and volatility.
• Uses a framework focused on conviction, optionality, and realizable private market discounts:
  • Looks for high-quality companies in entrenched market positions with strong, recurring cash returns.
  • Seeks asymmetrical upside via self-help levers and visible discounts to private market value.