(FORTUNE Magazine) – A SEQUEL TO BOWIE BONDS: SUPREME SECURITIES

The first ever "Forum On Music and Motion Picture Securitization" draws an unlikely cross section of business people. Groovy-cool entertainment types chat up somber insurance executives and uptempo investment bankers. What brings these tribes together is the prospect of creating derivative securities backed by entertainers' cash flows--anyone from the Captain and Tennille to Pamela Anderson.

You probably remember the hoopla last year attending the first of these deals, Bowie bonds. Bankers created $55 million of 7.9% 15-year bonds backed by royalties from David Bowie's records. It was supposed to ch-ch-change everything. If he could be securitized, why not the Rolling Stones or even Deep Purple? A flood of deals was anticipated. Instead, nothing.

"The Bowie deal was a blessing and a curse," says Bill Zysblat, one of the movers behind that transaction. "It was successful, but it created high expectations." David Bowie was tailor-made for securitization--he owned the rights to every song in his catalog of some 25 albums--but that is rare. Most rock & rollers sell major pieces of themselves along the way.

One deal that has gone down is a $30 million bond placement, inked recently by banker David Pullman and backed by the royalties of Motown's Edward and Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier. They wrote some 300 tunes, including the Supremes' "Stop in the Name of Love." However, most bankers are taking another path to securitization. They are making plain-vanilla (not Milli Vanilli) loans to rock stars backed by royalty streams, in part to create a portfolio of loans that can later be pooled into securities backed by the royalty flows.

In movies, one deal is a recent $300 million bond issue backed by the revenues of Italian film library Cecchi Gori. The slow progress suits Roy Salter, a managing director at Houlihan Lokey who worked on the deal. "I hope this business grows in an orderly fashion so we avoid excesses," he says. Hey, Roy. No excesses? We're talking Wall Street meets Hollywood!

CARIBINER OFF THE ROPES?

This company, which runs conferences and training programs, was as high as $46 last December. Then it drifted south, climaxing in a late-April selling spree that sent the stock to $17. Just another crash-and-burn case? Not according to some smart hedge-fund guys who have been buyers.

Caribiner (pronounced care-eh-BEAN-er...after those oval hooks rock climbers latch on to ropes) is still growing like crazy--operating income was up 92%. Yes, the company carries a small mountain of debt; but Merrill just upgraded the stock, now at $23.

LOOSE CHANGE

Speaking of securitization, I hear that ChiSox slugger Frank Thomas is looking to issue $20 million of securities backed by his mega-contract.... Isn't Netscape a buy? It's the only company the Justice Department will never let fail!... When we last checked in on Michael Dell ("Michael Dell Rocks," May 11, in the fortune.com archive), he was 33 years old and worth $7 billion. Today he's still 33 but worth $10 billion! (Stock's gone from $68 to $98.) You're welcome, Mike.... CHECK OUT STREET LIFE EVERY DAY ONLINE AT WWW.FORTUNE.COM