NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD.O) has created $1.8 billion worth of securities based on its most famous brand names: Kenmore, Craftsman and Die Hard, BusinessWeek magazine said in its latest issue on Thursday.

Sears had transferred ownership of the brands to an insurance subsidiary of the retailer last May, protecting them from any bankruptcy proceeding, BusinessWeek said, citing documents and sources familiar with the securitization.

The deal represents the biggest securitization of intellectual property in history, said the magazine, citing an analyst at Standard & Poor's, which, like BusinessWeek, is a unit of McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP.N).

Intellectual property bonds have been around since 1997, but generally rely on a stream of income to make interest payments, such as royalty payments from songs. Sears brand-name bonds do not involve pre-existing royalty payments, BusinessWeek said.

This is cache, read story here