Ex-Goldman trader Lim's hedge fund assets hit $500 mln - sources

By Nishant Kumar

LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) - Guard Capital, a macro hedge fund led by two former top traders at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) and Noble Group will stop taking money from new investors from July 1 after a more than ten-fold increase in assets since its launch last August, sources said.

The Hong-Kong based hedge fund, launched by Leland Lim, the former co-head of macro trading for Asia Pacific ex-Japan at Goldman, and Allan Bedwick, who was the head of macro trading in Asia for Noble Group, focuses on major economic trends and bets on currency and interest rate markets.

Its assets have risen close to $500 million, up from less than $50 million in August, the sources said, making it one of the fastest growing hedge fund launches in Asia.

The fund will continue to take money from existing investors but will not accept cash from new ones at least until the end of the year, a practice known as "soft close" in the industry.

Guard Capital's spokesman, Matthew Edwards, declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

Most hedge funds have a ceiling on the amount of money they would like to raise, to ensure that they are nimble enough to enter and exit their preferred trades and therefore protect returns.

While the highly liquid assets traded by macro funds can allow managers to run funds into the billions, Guard Capital wanted to absorb what it had before taking on any new clients, sources said.

The Guard Macro Master Fund gained 10 percent in 2014 and was up about 5 percent through April this year, the sources said.

By comparison, global peers as measured by Eurekahedge gained returned 3.7 percent last year and were up 2.8 percent through end of April this year. (Editing by Simon Jessop)