Centerbridge Clears $2B Mark For Fund II

Centerbridge Partners LP has so far raised $2.2 billion for its second fund, according to a regulatory filing Thursday.

The New York-based shop is seeking to raise $3.75 billion for the fund, Centerbridge Capital Partners II LP, according to a previous Buyouts report. The fund strategy is a hybrid of buyout and distressed-for-influence-or-control investments.

The fund has been among the most popular in recent months, garnering commitments from at least 53 investors, including the Nashville and Davidson County Metropolitan Government Employee Benefit Trust Fund, which committed $30 million. Investors in the firm’s first fund, a $3.2 billion pool of capital raised in 2006, included the Alaska Permanent Fund, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, and the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board.

Jeffrey Aronson, formerly a partner at Angelo, Gordon & Co., and Mark Gallogly, formerly a senior managing director at The Blackstone Group, founded Centerbridge Partners in 2006.

Park Hill Group LLC, the placement agency owned by Blackstone, is helping Centerbridge raise the fund.

In one of its most recent deals, Centerbridge bought Rock Bottom Restaurants and Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Group, which now operate as subsidiaries of CraftWorks Restaurants & Breweries, a holding company Centerbridge created. Other portfolio companies include BankUnited Inc., a bank it bought in 2009 alongside The Carlyle Group and WL Ross & Co.; Dana Holding Corp., an automotive components maker; Greatwide Logistics Services, a provider of transportation and distribution services; Green Tree Servicing; a consumer financial services company; and GSI Group, Inc., an agricultural equipment maker.

In April 2010, Centerbridge Partners closed another fund, Centerbridge Special Credit Partners LP with $2 billion, earmarked for distressed, non-control investments.