Goldman Sachs launches one of the largest hedge funds in Asia

Goldman Sachs is planning to launch a new hedge fund in Hong Kong. The company trading desk head Morgan Sze is setting up a 20-30 member team to start the business that is expected to raise more than $1 billion according to people familiar with the case.

The start-up hedge fund is expected to be one of the largest in Asia with the offices planned to take space in Hong Kong's ICBC Tower. The fund will start operating in the first quarter of 2011, two people familiar with the matter said.

The team would comprise about 12 analysts and the entire trading desk would come from Goldman, three sources said.

"Sze needs at least $1 billion just to justify the size of operation," a source familiar with the plan said.

Earlier The Financial Times reported that Sze, one of Goldman's top paid employees, had started raising money for a new hedge fund to be named Azentus Capital.

The fund may start trading with $1 billion to $1.5 billion and employ a number of strategies, including equity long-short, risk arbitrage and special situation investing, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.

Sources said Sze is Goldman's highest paid trader, and in 2006 received a bonus of almost $100 million.