DLA Piper advises HarbourView in closing approximately US$500 million music securitization

DLA Piper represented HarbourView Equity Partners (HarbourView), an alternative asset management company focused on the sports, media and entertainment space, in securing approximately US$500 million in financing through a private securitization backed by its catalog of music royalties. 

Leading global investment firm KKR led the financing. Kuvare Asset Management also participated in the transaction.

Since launching in 2021, HarbourView has amassed approximately US$1.5 billion* in managed regulatory assets, establishing a diverse portfolio featuring thousands of titles spanning numerous genres, eras, and artists including: Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, Wiz Khalifa, Brad Paisley, Jeremih, Nelly, Luis Fonsi, Eslabon Armado, and more. 

“It was a pleasure to advise HarbourView on their latest securitization, better positioning them to aggregate high quality music rights. We look forward to supporting them in the future, and we enjoyed deploying the full suite of our skills and experience to successfully close this transaction,” said Robert J. Sherman, co-chair of DLA Piper’s Entertainment Finance practice, who co-led the firm’s deal team.

The DLA Piper team was co-led by Claire Hall (Los Angeles), a partner in the firm’s Structured Finance group with a focus on ABS transactions. “This is the fifth music rights ABS deal that DLA has closed in the past 36 months, further bolstering DLA Piper’s role as a go-to firm in the media ABS sector.”

“We are grateful for DLA Piper’s guidance and assistance with this pivotal financing transaction,” said Sherrese Clarke Soares, founder and CEO of HarbourView.

The closing of this financing is another major milestone for the firm’s Media, Sports and Entertainment, and Structured Finance practices, cementing DLA Piper as a leading player in music securitizations. 

DLA Piper's market-leading international team of media, sport and entertainment lawyers, located throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, advises on M&A, finance, borrowing, investment and corporate issues, production and rights acquisitions, exploiting media rights, staging and exploiting live sports and other events, intellectual property protection and enforcement, regulatory and administrative issues, antitrust and competition law, stadium and arena development and on the resolution of disputes. 

Our international structured finance and derivatives practice covers a broad range of asset classes including CLOs, securitizations and structured products. The securitization team has a strong track record in esoteric ABS acting on transactions which are public issuances and private placements. Our team has worked on transactions involving solar loans, trade receivables as well as fintech and consumer lending music royalties, GP and management fees, and data center warehouses.

*Regulatory AUM for private funds are calculated regardless of the nature of the gross assets under management. This includes any uncalled committed capital pursuant to an obligation to make a capital contribution to the fund.