American Century Investments said today that it closed the
American Century New Opportunities Fund to new investors because the fund surpassed $400 million in assets. The company has also announced that it will be launching an aggressive all-cap fund on November 30.
This marks the first time the Kansas City-based mutual fund company has closed a fund to new investors based on the asset level of the fund.
"When we launched the fund, American Century knew it was important to keep the fund to a reasonable size to allow the management team to remain nimble and maintain the emphasis on the small-and mid-cap market," said
Spence Fitzgibbons, American Century's director of product management.
The growth of New Opportunities, an aggressive growth fund nearing its fourth birthday, has come from both new investments and through performance the company says. For the first three quarters of this year through Sept. 30, the fund has gained 40%. For the one-year period ended Sept. 30, 1999, the fund posted a total return of 79.31%.
"We almost ran into a problem because (the fund's assets) shot up so quickly,"
Beth Randolph, a spokesperson for American Century said. "As of yesterday the fund had $564 million in assets."
Because the fund had a high $10,000 minimum it attracted serious investors, Randolph said. "There was a little bit of marketing and some American Century advertising but most of the success comes from its performance or word of mouth."
Last week, American Century as a company surpassed the $100 billion in assets mark. There are no current plans to launch a mirror fund but it is always looking for new opportunities -- no pun intended.
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