Sequoia fund which only re-opened in 2008 is already shutting its doors. The famous value mutual fund joins a growing list of prominent firms closing their funds to new capital, and in some cases returning money.
Sequoia Fund letter to shareholders.
December 9, 2013
To our Sequoia Shareholders:
Effective immediately, we are adopting a harder close for Sequoia. The Fund will be closed to new investors, except for new accounts opened with us directly by existing
shareholders of the Fund or existing clients of our firm, or members of their families. The Fund will remain open to contributions from existing shareholders, though we reserve the right to reject any order to purchase Fund shares.
This change will make Sequoia consistent with the separately managed portfolios under our management, where we stopped opening accounts for new clients earlier this year. The objective of this change is to restrict the inflow of funds under our management. As the funds we manage grow, incremental investments must become larger if they are to generate meaningful returns. We believe there is some truth to the adage ‘size is the enemy of performance,’ and would like to maintain our ability to make investments in mid-sized companies that can provide meaningful returns to our shareholders.
The predominant source of the growth in funds under our management in the last five years has derived from appreciation of the price of the equities in the portfolio. Clearly, we’d be pleased if good investment performance continued to drive growth in assets. We seek to curtail growth in assets coming from new investors.
We appreciate the confidence that all of our investors have shown us over many years and we hope that this measure will in small part repay that confidence.
Sincerely,
Richard T. Cunniff
Vice Chairman
Robert D. Goldfarb
President Executive
David M. Poppe
Vice President
