Centerbridge Raises $3 Billion for First Buyout Fund (Update1)

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Centerbridge Capital Partners LP, co-founded by former Blackstone Group LP executive Mark Gallogly, raised $3 billion for its first fund to make leveraged buyouts and invest in financially distressed companies.

``It's a huge amount for a debut fund,'' said Nick Arnott, a managing director at London-based Private Equity Intelligence Ltd., which tracks fund raising. ``The market is still very buoyant.''

Centerbridge, based in New York, raised its money in six months and will invest in financial and business-services companies, media and telecommunications businesses as well as consumer and retail firms, Gallogly said today.

Private-equity firms will gather a record $300 billion this year, according to Private Equity Intelligence. Investors are being lured by buyout-fund returns that have outstripped the Standard & Poor's 500 Index over the past decade.

``We hit the market at the right time,'' Gallogly said at the Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst conference in New York.

Gallogly left Blackstone a year ago as head of buyouts. A 16-year company veteran, he was involved in investments in New Skies Satellites Holdings Ltd. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. Blackstone this year raised a $15.6 billion buyout fund, the world's largest.

Centerbridge's co-founder is Jeffrey Aronson, a former partner at Angelo, Gordon & Co., a New York-based hedge-fund manager. Aronson focused on distressed securities and founded its leveraged-loan business before leaving in February 2005.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brett Cole in New York at coleb@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Edelman at ledelman3@bloomberg.net