UPDATE 1-Ex-Millennium Cameron shuts global macro hedge fund
* KC Asia fund returned about 12 percent in 2008 (Adds details, quotes, background)By Nishant Kumar and Kevin LimHONG KONG/SINGAPORE, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Singapore-based hedge fund Komodo Capital Management Pte Ltd is liquidating its flagship global macro fund KC Asia, its founder and Chief Investment Officer Angus Cameron told Reuters on Tuesday.Cameron, who founded the firm in 2006, said the fund had returned money to investors and was moving operations to Australia for "personal reasons".The hedge fund manager, who earlier worked at Millennium Capital Management and Bank of America Corp , said he hoped to start managing money for clients from mid-2012."I will continue to manage my own money, which I have been doing since I started the fund, and I will be managing money on a number of platforms and also for several clients," he said.Komodo Capital managed about $40 million before it started returning money to investors. In 2008, it managed $120 million."When we get up and start running again, I think the capital will be similar ($40 million)," he said.A former second lieutenant in the Australian Army Reserve, Cameron said Komodo Capital would remain in Singapore but he would be running money from Australia using the same strategy as the KC Asia fund.KC Asia Fund was a macro-directional and relative value absolute return hedge fund with its main focus on the Asia-Pacific region. It targeted a 12 percent annual return with volatility of less than 10 percent.Macro hedge funds focus on major economic trends and events and bet anywhere they see value, including in stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities and derivatives markets.KC Asia Fund produced a return of about 12 percent in 2008 when the global financial crisis wiped out trillions of dollars of wealth. Last year, the fund was down about 3.5 percent, said a source with access to the fund's return.About 80 hedge funds in Asia have closed down this year, according to Singapore-based the industry Eurekahedge, as investors shy away from allocating fresh capital to the region given nagging concerns about the global economy and the European debt crisis.Regional hedge fund assets contracted 5 percent in the first half of 2011 to $145 billion, $47 billion below the peak in December 2007, according to data from industry tracker AsiaHedge.By contrast, the global industry regained pre-crisis asset levels last year and subsequently scaled new highs above $2 trillion, according to data from Hedge Fund Research.