In the second half of October, KKR – via its new Chord Music venture – acquired a large portfolio of rights from Kobalt for $1.1 billion.
According to Bloomberg, KKR Credit Advisors is using a catalog of 65,000 songs – including hits from The Weeknd, Stevie Nicks, and Childish Gambino – to sell more than $732 million of asset-backed securities supported by publishing and sound recording royalties.
KKR isn’t the first company to launch its own equivalent of ‘Bowie Bonds’ in the modern era: In December, private equity company Northleaf Capital announced it was raising $303.8 million by selling Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) supported by music rights – including songs created by Pete Townshend, and by country star Tim McGraw.
That news came shortly after Toronto-based Northleaf took ownership of an interest in music catalogs at Spirit Music Group via a $500 million deal.
