Poor Annie Leibovitz. Imagine facing the prospect of losing several of your many homes, not to mention rights over your multi-million dollar store of snaps. That was the situation facing the celebrity photographer, as we reported late last year, until private equity came to the rescue.
Now, as the FT reports on Tuesday, Annie has been bailed out by US private equity firm Colony Capital – just like one of those cash-strapped companies ripe for debt restructuring.
Under the deal, Los Angeles-based Colony (which, as the FT notes, is better known for its real estate investments than for celeb artist rescues) will provide loans to help clean up Leibovitz’s finances, becoming her sole creditor and helping her market a library of more than 100,000 photographs (remember the Rolling Stone cover of the naked John Lennon embracing Yoko Ono? Or a very pregnant, naked Demi Moore gracing the cover of Vanity Fair?)
Colony came along at just the right time for Leibovitz, 60. Thanks to some rather opaque – and, it would seem, shortsighted – dealings with a New York-based outfit called Art Capital, she was on the verge of losing the rights to her photographs and at least three Manhattan townhouses after falling behind on payments to Art Capital.
The firm – which describes its mission as “private banking for the art world”- says it “assists artists in creating liquidity from art assets”. Leibovitz, who had made an arrangement to borrow up to $24m from Art Capital, will now retain the rights to more than 100,000 photographs and about 1m negatives stored in a warehouse in Manhattan.
Leibovitz this week said she was planning to work on new projects with Colony’s backing, and would have the “support and freedom necessary for nurturing my work and preserving my archive.”
And, of course, keeping her property investments.
For Colony, the Leibovitz rescue is unusual. In its focus on big property deals, the firm is currently considering whether to join bidding for General Growth Properties, the bankrupt US mall owner, and for Stuyvesant Town, the New York apartment complex that ended up in the hands of its creditors after its owners defaulted on their debt.
In October, Colony and General Atlantic announced they were buying First Republic Bank from Bank of America, alongside First Republic’s management.
Interestingly, however, the firm seems to have a soft spot for celebrities and in May 2008 did a deal with Michael Jackson, to purchase a loan with a face value of about $23.5m on Jackson’s Neverland ranch. Colony has not disclosed the price it paid for the loan, according to the FT, but the transaction left it with the rights to the late entertainer’s 2,700-acre estate in California.
The firm now plans to put the Neverland property up for sale and is expecting bids ranging from $50m-$100m – proving, yet again, that rescuing celebrities can pay.
Related links:
Leibovitz’s financial Doomsday clock – FTAlphaville
Leibovitz wins court reprieve – FT