Mackenzie Financial Corp., the manager of Mackenzie Cundill Recovery Fund announced today that it will be closing the fund to new purchases, effective April 7.

The fund has a mandate to invest in equity and fixed income investments that meet not only Cundill’s contrarian, deep value philosophy, but that also are in recovery or turnaround situations. Mackenzie, along with the investment management team at Cundill, believes that finding incremental investment opportunities in this area has become increasingly difficult at a pace that is consistent with current investor purchases into the fund.

Mackenzie said the fund’s assets under management are currently over $1 billion, a rise of more than 200% over the past year.

“It has been increasingly difficult to find the bargain issues on a global basis that have made the fund so successful. Cash has built up in the portfolio. The fund needs some time to digest the additional resources,” said Peter Cundill, co-manager of the fund, in a release.

The fund will be closed to all new purchases with one exception; Symmetry Specialty Stock Capital Class, which is offered only through the Symmetry Portfolio Service, will be permitted to continue purchasing units of the Recovery Fund, consistent with its current simplified prospectus.

“The interests of existing investors must come first in situations like this,” said David Feather, president of Mackenzie Financial Services Inc.

Mackenzie said it may or may not re-open the fund to new sales at a later date.