American Century Small-Cap Fund Reopens

One of American Century's better funds has reopened to new investors after being closed for more than seven years.

 American Century Small Cap Value (ASVIX) reopened on April 20, 2009. It is managed by Ben Giele and James Pitman. Giele has been at the helm for more than 10 years, and the fund has been a fine performer under his leadership. The fund ranks in the top 10% of small-cap value funds for the 10 years through the end of March 2009. It has also held up better than most of its peers during the current bear market, though it has sustained substantial losses.

The fund had closed in November 2001 when its asset base rose to more than $1 billion. The fund then grew much larger than that during the small-cap rally of the mid-2000s. According to an American Century official, the small-cap value strategy used by the fund currently has $950 million in assets.

In a statement, Phillip Davidson, American Century's CIO of U.S. Value Equity, said that the fund was reopened because he and his colleagues believe there are compelling opportunities available and that at its current asset level, the fund has the capacity to take advantage by bringing in new money to invest.