TCI founder, partner Degorce leaves hedge firm

By Laurence Fletcher

LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Patrick Degorce, a founder and partner at high-profile activist hedge fund firm The Children's Investment Fund (TCI), has left the company, a spokeswoman told Reuters on Friday.

Degorce was in the public eye in early 2007 when he wrote a high-profile letter on behalf of shareholder TCI to Dutch bank ABN Amro criticising its "terrible shareholder return" and calling on it to look at a break-up, spin-off, sale or merger of units or the business as a whole.

ABN was later sold to a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) for about 70 billion euros ($95.73 billion).

Degorce, formerly a fund manager at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, ceased to be a member of the TCI limited liability partnership on Jan. 1, according to a company filing.

The spokeswoman confirmed he no longer worked at TCI, but declined to comment further.

London-based TCI, set up by Chris Hohn in 2003, is a well-known activist shareholder and was until recently involved in a drawn-out battle with Japan's J-Power (9513.T). ($1=.7312 Euro) (Editing by Simon Jessop)