NY Firm Raises Close To $4B

Centerbridge Partners LP has so far raised more than $3.8 billion for its second fund, according to a recent regulatory filing.

Buyouts reported in August 2010, when the firm began marketing the fund, that the New York-based shop was seeking $3.75 billion in commitments for the fund, Centerbridge Capital Partners II LP.

It’s unclear whether the firm is still actively seeking commitments for the fund, which pursues a hybrid strategy of buyout and distressed-for-influence-or-control investments.

The fund has been among the most popular on fundraising market, attracting commitments from 193 investors, according to the filing. They include the Los Angeles Fire & Police Pensions, which committed $25 million, and 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.

Park Hill Group LLC, the placement agency owned by The Blackstone Group, is helping Centerbridge raise the fund, which requires a minimum investment of $125,000.

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

Around this time last year, Centerbridge Partners closed another fund, Centerbridge Special Credit Partners LP with $2 billion, earmarked for distressed, non-control investments.

The firm’s portfolio includes BankUnited Inc., a bank it bought in 2009 alongside The Carlyle Group and WL Ross & Co. and which went public in January; Dana Holding Corp., an automotive components maker; Greatwide Logistics Services, a provider of transportation and distribution services; and Green Tree Servicing; a consumer financial services company.

Aronson was not immediately available for comment.