I’ve never been one to sell scarcity and urgency, but in this case, I’m going to make an exception.
After having been closed to new shareholders for years, PRIMECAP’s premier fund has reopened. If you ever kicked yourself for not getting PRIMECAP Odyssey Aggressive Growth (POAGX) while you could, here’s your chance. My only advice:
Act now before the opportunity is gone. The last time the fund closed, there was no advance warning; the gates simply came down.
As I recently wrote to you, when it comes to good active management, size is generally the enemy. One way some fund companies try to protect themselves from being forced into mediocrity is to close their funds to new shareholders. Sometimes, they’ll even shut off the spigot entirely, taking no new money regardless of where it comes from.
While it can be frustrating to be locked out of a fund, I generally think it’s the right thing for fund companies to do—protect the interests of existing shareholders over the profits that come from gathering more assets.
The PRIMECAP Management team has a history of closing funds to maintain their ability to invest actively, and well. PRIMECAP Odyssey Aggressive Growth has been closed for the better part of a decade—since January 20, 2014, to be specific. However, according to a prospectus supplement filed with the SEC on December 14:
The Board of Trustees of the PRIMECAP Odyssey Funds has approved the opening of the PRIMECAP Odyssey Aggressive Growth Fund for sale to all investors, effective as of December 15, 2022.
I appreciate the attention to detail here. The fund is in the process of paying a fairly large distribution to shareholders of record on December 14. So, I applaud that the firm is reopening the fund after its record date. This prevents any new shareholders from mistakenly buying into a distribution. That’s good stewardship.
But why are they reopening the fund?
Call it opportunistic. Given that we are currently in a bear market, the managers probably see opportunities they’d like to take advantage of. And it’s easier to be a buyer when money is flowing into your fund than out. At the same time, the managers have capacity. Assets are down from more than $10 billion to about $7 billion currently.
As is the case with closing funds, the PRIMECAP team also has a history of reopening their funds from time to time—though the window doesn’t always stay open for very long. For example, Capital Opportunity (VHCOX) was open for just eight months between April 2013 and December 2013.