History

In 1991, Harlan B. Korenvaes left his position as head of the convertible bond desk at Merrill Lynch to start HBK. HBK was founded with $30 million of initial capital contributed by Harlan and four original limited partners: Richard Rainwater, David Geffen, the Ziff family, and the William A. Burden family. To benefit from proximity to Mr. Rainwater, Harlan moved to Fort Worth, Texas, and launched HBK’s multi-strategy fund in October 1991. For the first several years, the four original limited partners provided all of the capital that Harlan wanted to invest. In 1995, HBK launched an offshore fund and first accepted capital from new investors, and the firm reorganized into a more typical hedge fund structure. In May 1998, HBK moved its headquarters from Fort Worth to Dallas. Today, the firm’s primary office remains in Dallas, with other offices located in New York, London and Charlottesville.

From the beginning, Harlan’s intention was to build an enduring institution that would outlive his own involvement. Harlan retired from HBK in 2003, and over the years many new partners have been admitted and have retired from the firm. Since Harlan’s retirement, HBK has been fully controlled and predominantly owned by the firm’s active partners, a structure that we believe is critical to the creation of an enduring institution. This approach is designed to reward active partners for their current efforts and to prevent retired and less active partners from capturing a disproportionate share of the available economics. The firm's style is heavily team-oriented, and we do not believe we are dependent upon any one individual for our success.

Throughout its history, HBK has also had a consistent portfolio mission: capital preservation through attractive risk-adjusted returns, relatively low volatility, and relatively low correlation to most major market indices. In the early years, HBK was focused primarily on convertible arbitrage, merger arbitrage, and G-7 fixed income arbitrage. While our general investment objective has not changed since our inception, the specific strategies we employ have grown and evolved based on our investment team’s expertise and experience and perceived areas of opportunity. HBK now pursues a wide range of strategies, including investments in equity, credit, derivatives, sovereign debt, currencies and commodities in both developed and emerging markets, and we regularly add new strategies. We generally strive to hedge some portion of the systematic risks associated with an investment, which may include equity, currency, commodity, credit spread, volatility, interest rate and curve risk.

Scroll down to view a historical timeline of key HBK events.

1991

  1. HBK moves into first office space in Ft. Worth

  2. HBK executed its first trade

  3. U.S. Convertible Arbitrage strategy launched & U.S. Event-Driven Equities strategy launched

  4. HBK’s multi-strategy product launched with $30mm

1992

  1. International Convertible Arbitrage strategy launched

1993

  1. Developed Markets Fixed Income strategy launched

  2. European Event-Driven Equities strategy launched

1994

  1. U.S. Corporate Credit, Volatility and Emerging Markets strategies launched

1995

  1. First acceptance of outside capital beyond original investment group

1996

  1. HBK opens New York office

1997

  1. HBK opens London office

  2. HBK Europe Management L.L.P. registers with the FCA

1998

  1. HBK moves corporate headquarters to Dallas

1999

  1. Quantitative Strategies strategy launched

2001

  1. Relative-Value Equities strategy launched

2002

  1. Structured Credit strategy launched

  2. HBK Global Securities L.P. registered with FINRA as a Broker Dealer

2003

  1. European Corporate Credit strategy launched

  2. Harlan B. Korenvaes (HBK) retires

2004

2005

2007

2008

  1. HBK launches its first special opportunity product

2010

  1. HBK launches stand-alone quantitative strategies product

2011

  1. HBK celebrates its 20th Anniversary

2014

  1. HBK launches stand-alone merger arbitrage product

2015

  1. HBK launches its second special opportunity product

2016

  1. HBK celebrates its 25th Anniversary

2018

  1. HBK moves corporate headquarters to the Union in Dallas

2020

  1. HBK launches stand-alone convertible arbitrage product

2021

  1. HBK launches stand-alone SPAC product

  2. HBK celebrates its 30th Anniversary

2022

  1. HBK launches two opportunistic credit products