By Michelle Caruso
New York Daily News
(KRT)
LOS ANGELES - Singer Michael Jackson has refinanced about $300 million in loans, avoiding possible bankruptcy and foreclosure on his Neverland Ranch, his reps announced Thursday.
The financial revamp involves Sony Corp., which shares with Jackson ownership of the valuable Sony/ATV (Beatles) music catalog, and lender Fortress Investment Group, according to a statement from the tarnished pop idol’s legal team in Bahrain.
Details ``will not be disclosed,’’ the statement said.
But the deal reportedly calls for Jackson, 47, to give Sony the option to buy half of his 50 percent share of the coveted music catalog at some time in the future.
The entire catalog, which is co-owned by Jackson and Sony, has an estimated value of $1 billion.
Under the proposed deal, Sony could wind up owning 75 percent of the catalog, which includes hundreds of Beatles hits, and Jackson could retain 25 percent, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
Jackson’s financial manager in Los Angeles, Alan Whitman, could not be reached for comment.
The deal was hammered out by Jackson’s advisers and lawyers in Bahrain, where he moved after his acquittal on child molestation charges last summer.
Jackson’s financial house has been steadily crumbling for several years due to his failing career, lavish spending habits and huge legal bills from his criminal trial and several pending civil lawsuits.
Last month, state labor officials shut down his Neverland Ranch because he failed to provide workers’ comp insurance and had stiffed employees of more than $300,000 in wages since December.
His associates paid off the back wages to avoid a lawsuit by the state, but the ranch crew was laid off. A few contract laborers are currently maintaining the ranch’s zoo animals, but the property remains essentially closed.
:eek: In recent years, Jackson was earning about $12 million a year, most of it revenue from the Beatles catalog, but he was spending about $30 million a year, creating huge deficits that he has financed by borrowing, according to testimony at his trial.