Two sources told Bloomberg that former Goldman Sachs Group Inc partner Leland Lim is thinking of beginning his own hedge fund which will be based in Hong Kong. Lim left the company recently as the co-head of the trading team in the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, the report said.

According to the people, the new firm is looking to begin a global macro hedge fund focused on Asia in the middle of the year. They added that the fund will be primarily trading currency and interest-rate instruments. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity as the information is confidential, the report said.

The Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission's licensing record of Lim showed that he left Goldman Sachs on January 24. The bank's internal memo showed that Lim retired from the New York-based lender after 17 years. Goldman Sachs Hong Kong-based Spokesman Edward Naylor confirmed the content of the memo to Bloomberg today but did not give any other details, the report said.

The sources said that Lim's departure had nothing to do with the regulatory probe conducted in various banks regarding possible rigging of rates. They added that he will be heading the investments in his own firm. The sources did not reveal the name of the company, the report said.

The internal memo showed that it was in 1997 when Lim joined the foreign-exchange options desk of Goldman Sachs in New York. Two years later, he moved to Asia to work on instruments in Hong Kong and Tokyo. He took care of foreign exchange and interest-rate derivatives trading in the Asia-Pacific region except Japan before 2012 when he got appointed to his latest post. The memo from the Isabelle Ealet and Pablo J. Salame, the co-heads of sales and trading of the bank showed that Lim was promoted as managing director in 2006 and became partner in 2010, Bloomberg reported.