Ex-Goldman star Flamand has tough debut year

* Edoma Partners fund down 3.79 pct in 2011-source

* Fund one of the biggest launches in recent years

* Event-driven strategies hurt by feeble M&A market

By Tommy Wilkes

LONDON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Pierre-Henri Flamand, the star trader who left Goldman Sachs to launch one of the most eagerly-awaited hedge funds of 2010, is having a tough debut year as volatile markets rock the M&A dealflow his strategy trades on to make money.

His $2.1 billion event-driven Edoma Partners fund, which makes money by taking positions on corporate events like mergers, bankruptcies and restructurings, is down 3.79 percent in 2011 to the end of last week, one investor in the fund said.

This leaves the fund down just under 2 percent since its Nov. 1 launch last year, the source said.

Surging volatility has killed off a slew of M&A deals this year and many companies have put any buying ambitions on hold until they have more certainty around the economic outlook.

Event-driven funds, which often take speculative positions in companies involved in takeovers before they are announced and can adopt long-short strategies, have been hurt this year as volatility makes spreads less predictable.

The HFRI Event-Driven (Total) Index fell 1.75 percent in the 10 months to the end of October. Flamand's fund, which closed to new investors at $2.1 billion earlier this year, was down 2.6 percent over the same period, two investor sources said.

"There will be some people who will be disappointed because they were expecting more but it's been a really difficult market...I think people will give him the benefit of the doubt," said one of the sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Like many of his peers, Flamand, once one of Goldman Sach's most senior proprietary players, launched London-based Edoma after a regulatory clampdown in the United States under the so-called Volcker rule which restricts banks who bet with their own capital.

Other top Goldman stars to make the move include Morgan Sze, who raised more than $1 billion for his multi-strategy Hong-Kong based Azentus Capital earlier this year.

Edoma Partners declined to comment.