翻点摇滚巨星大卫鲍伊的金融遗产
Just as he blazed a trail through the world of rock’n’roll, David Bowie gave financial markets something they had never seen before — pop bonds.
大卫贠伊(David Bowie)在摇滚世界突破创新的同时，也给金融市场留下了一个前所未有的事物——名人债券。
In 1997, the musician, whose death was announced yesterday, sold $55m of “Bowie Bonds”, securities backed by current and future revenues of the 25 albums he recorded before 1990.
鲍伊逝世的消息于昨日公布。1997年这位音乐家售出了5500万美元的“鲍伊债券”(Bowie Bonds)，其证券担保是他1990年前录制的25张唱片从今往后的收入。
Rather than receiving income from works such as The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, the bonds allowed Bowie to borrow more money up front. Investors received interest of 7.9 per cent for the 10-year bond.
鲍伊没有从《杰基星尘和火星蜘蛛的盛衰》(The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars)等作品中直接获得收入，而是利用债券提前筹到更多资金。投资者从这只10年期债券获得7.9%的利息。
Mark Bezant, an intellectual property expert at consulting group FTI, said: “It only worked for a small number of artists who had retained the relevant rights. That was the key.”
咨询公司FTI的知识产权专家马克贝赞特(Mark Bezant)表示：“只有一小部分艺术家能这么做，因为他们保有相关权利，这是关键。”
The issue was masterminded by banker David Pullman, a US financier who carved out a niche securitising stars’ back catalogues, including those of James Brown and Marvin Gaye.
该项目是由银行家戴维渠尔曼(David Pullman)策划的。这位美国金融家一手打造了对歌星的旧曲——包括詹姆斯布朗(James Brown)和马文盖伊(Marvin Gaye)的旧曲——进行证券化的缝隙业务。
But the rise of online music sharing blew a hole in copyright legislation and Bowie Bonds plunged. In 2004, Moody’s cut their rating to BBB+, one notch above junk status. Mr Bezant said it was now “harder for people to pull in income streams in a way they did when they were first invented”.
但是，在线音乐共享的崛起破坏了版权立法，鲍伊债券骤然暴跌。2004年，穆迪(Moody's)将其评级下调至BBB+，仅比垃圾级高一级。贝赞特表示，如今“更难像这些债券刚刚被发明时那样获得收入流”。
The early success of Bowie Bonds was a factor underpinning Guy Hands’ 2007 bid for EMI. The private equity mogul, who had achieved success securitising pub and motorway service area returns, believed that EMI’s vast back catalogue was ripe for the Bowie Bond treatment. The following year, with the collapse of credit markets, he abandoned the idea after being unable to spread the risk of the 4.2bn takeover.
鲍伊债券早期的成功增强了葛涵思(Guy Hands) 2007年竞购音乐公司百代(EMI)的信心。这位曾经成功将酒吧及高速公路服务区回报证券化的私人股本大亨相信，百代庞大的旧曲目录应该得到类似于“鲍伊债券”的对待。次年，随着信贷市场的崩溃，由于无法分散这笔42亿英镑收购的风险，他放弃了这一想法。
