Exclusive: Millennium duo plans record Asia hedge fund launch - sources

Two top executives of Millennium Management LLC are preparing to start a $1.4 billion Asia hedge fund, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, in what would be the region's largest such fund launch.

The Millennium spin-out could raise hopes of adding a spark to Asia's hedge fund industry, which has suffered from poor returns in the past few years from volatile and sinking markets across the region.

The hedge fund will be based in Hong Kong and be named Symmetry Investment Management, the people said, and will be led by Millennium portfolio manager Feng Guo and the firm's Asian regional manager, Michael Robinson. The firm plans to open for business in the first quarter of 2014, the people said, after receiving licenses and setting up its office.

The duo will get as much as $1.2 billion from Millennium and another $200 million from external investors. The launch breaks the record set by former Goldman Sachs trader Morgan Sze, who started Azentus Capital in 2011 with $1 billion.

A New York-based spokeswoman for Millennium, the $18.6 billion money manager, declined to comment. The sources did not want to be named because the launch has yet to be officially announced.

(Reporting by Nishant Kumar; Editing by Michael Flaherty and Chris Gallagher)