Ex-Merrill exec drops plans to start fund: report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dow Kim, the former head of trading and investment banking at Merrill Lynch & Co MER.N, has abandoned plans to start a hedge fund after investors backed out, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.

The article, citing two people with knowledge of the matter, said Kim had been in discussions with institutions that had agreed to invest about $1 billion in his Diamond Lake Investment Group LP.

But the article said the evaporation of credit and declines surpassing 20 percent in some stock markets caused the initial investors to change their minds.

Bloomberg said Kim declined to comment. A spokesman for Diamond Lake could not immediately be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Nicole Maestri; Editing by Braden Reddall)