NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Fund management firm Southeastern Asset Management said Monday it would reopen its shuttered Longleaf Partners International Fund effective immediately, citing a number of "compelling investment opportunities" in global markets.

"The recent volatility in markets around the globe has produced additional high quality companies that are adequately discounted, and a number of existing holdings are attractively priced," Mason Hawkins, chairman and CEO of Southeastern and co-manager of the fund said in a statement.

Southeastern closed the Longleaf Partners International Fund to new investors in February 2004, noting at the time that there were few attractive undervalued companies.

The fund currently has $3 billion in assets invested in 19 companies outside of the United States.

The top five holdings in the fund as of March included Japanese firms NipponKoa and Olympus, Dutch electronics giant Philips Electronics (down $0.59 to $29.68, Charts), Mexican cement producer Cemex and Canadian cable operator Shaw Communications (down $0.18 to $28.27, Charts).

The fund has posted a 4.44 percent return so far this year through May, and has produced an average 5-year return of 8.23 percent. The fund, however, has lagged behind the performance of other foreign large-cap value funds over the past five years, resulting in a "below average" rating from the fund-rating firm Morningstar.

Burt Greenwald of BJ Greenwald Associates, a Philadelphia-based mutual fund consultant, said the move by Longleaf to reopen its international fund comes at a time when many international stocks have recently taken a beating.

"They are bottom fishing now and are willing to take in new money in as they see new investments," Greenwald said.

Longleaf, which has developed a strong reputation for investing in undervalued companies, noted that International Fund investors would not be able to enter their long-closed Small Cap and Partners Fund by investing in the International Fund.

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