LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hedge fund firm Centaurus Capital is returning all money to external investors after disagreements with clients about where the best money-making opportunities lie, a source familiar with the firm said.
The partners of the London-based firm will continue to trade using their own cash, the source added.
Centaurus recently sat down with investors and decided it wanted to focus on general event-driven opportunities such as bets on company takeovers rather than the risk arbitrage strategies which many clients preferred.
Centaurus will also close its Asia office, three separate sources familiar with the matter said. The decision will result in the departures of its entire Asia team including fund manager Kim Yu Ang.
Centaurus, which runs three funds, has lost assets in recent years despite positive performance, and managed less than $500 million (321 million pounds) recently, the source said. It is not clear how much of that was third-party investors' money.
The Centaurus Global Event Opportunities fund is up 4.2 percent year to date and was up nearly 11 percent in 2012, the source said.
(Reporting by Tommy Wilkes and Nishant Kumar; editing by Sinead Cruise)
