Funds Notebook: Skyline Opens Up to Stop the Bleeding

Sometimes it helps to think about waning mutual funds as critically wounded patients. The first priority is to stop the bleeding.

That's what Skyline Asset Management is trying to do with its (SKSEX Quote)Special Equities Portfolio. The fund company announced Thursday it is opening the small-cap value fund to new investors for the first time since 1996.

The fund bled $93 million in net redemptions this year through September, shrinking it to just $275 million in assets. That's still more than the $219 million it had at the end of 1996, a month before it closed to new investors. (The fund also closed in December 1992 and reopened in May 1996.) But it's a heck of a lot less than the $446 million that the fund had at the end of last year. ...