Ex-Merrill exec’s hedge fund nipped in bud

The former head of trading and investment banking at Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. has shelved plans to launch a hedge fund, after investors backed out, according to Bloomberg. Dow Kim had been in discussions with institutions that had agreed to invest a combined $1 billion in his Diamond Lake Investment Group LP of New York. The evaporation of credit and declines in the stock market caused investors to change their minds, sources told Bloomberg. Mr. Kim had planned a multistrategy hedge fund that would trade equities, bonds and currencies. After joining New York-based Merrill in 1994, Mr. Kim was promoted to co-head of trading and investment banking in 2003. In 2006, he oversaw the $1.3 billion acquisition of First Franklin Financial that made Merrill one of the biggest underwriters of subprime mortgages. Mr. Kim declined to comment on the Bloomberg report.