Goldman shuttered its GEO quantitative hedge fund

BOSTON Jan 22 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs (GS.N) shut down its Global Equity Opportunities Funds at the end of 2009 after the portfolio, once among the company's well-performing in-house hedge funds, suffered heavy redemptions for some time.

The fund, which relied on computer models to make trades, had about $200 million in assets at the end of last year, down from roughly $7 billion at its peak.

Bob Jones, who had managed the fund throughout its life, is no longer managing money at the firm but remains an adviser at the firm.

A Goldman spokeswoman confirmed that the portfolio has been closed.

The fund made headlines in 2007 when it lost nearly one quarter of its capital in August of that year during a market sell-off, and assets fell steadily after that, a person familiar with the matter said. Goldman invested about $2 billion of its own money to rescue the fund.

Separately, Robert Litterman, the chairman of Goldman's quantitative investment strategy group, plans to retire at the end of January. Goldman confirmed the plans.

Litterman had been with the firm for 23 years and was not managing money in his most recent role. (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Bernard Orr)