There is a cop musical that had a longer run on television than this mutual fund.

On January 2nd of this year, Southeastern Asset Management [profile] rolled out its first U.S. open-ended fund since 1998, and its first global mutual fund ever available in the United States.

The fund, dubbed the Longleaf Partners Global Fund, was designed to seek long-term capital growth by investing primarily in U.S. and non-U.S. companies believed to be "significantly undervalued." It aims to achieve this goal by investing at least 40% of its total assets in non-U.S. companies in an unconstrained portfolio which invests in companies of all market capitalizations and geographies.

Now the inception date for this fund was December 27, 2012. Why does that matter? Because the fund was closed to new investors on January 27, 2013-- exactly one month.

In a filing with the SEC Southeastern Asset explained the closure in this way:

The Longleaf Partners Global Fund launched December 27, 2012 to offer Southeastern’s global strategy to a broader client base. On January 27, 2013 the Fund closed to new investors. Since October when we began planning to open the Global Fund, stock prices have risen rapidly, leaving few good businesses that meet our 60% of appraisal discount. Limited new qualifying investments, combined with relatively quick inflows from shareholders, have left us with more cash than we can invest. Remaining open would dilute existing investors by further raising our cash level.

Further in the filing, the asset manager explained that "Our Governing Principle, “We will consider closing to new investors if closing would benefit existing clients,” has caused us to close the three other Longleaf Funds at various times over the past 20 years. When investment opportunities enable us to put the Fund’s cash to work, and additional inflows will benefit our partners, we will re-open the Global Fund to new investors."

Mason Hawkins and Staley Cates, who received Morningstar's Domestic-Stock Fund Manager of the Year award in 2006, are the managers of the $28 million fund. 

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