July 3 (Bloomberg) -- Michael Jackson’s death last week and the resulting surge in popularity of his songs has increased payments for Dutch pension fund Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, which owns the rights to some of his hits.

Imagem Music Group, the music publishing investment fund set up by ABP and CP Masters BV, manages the publishing rights to more than 100,000 tracks including Jackson songs such as “You Are Not Alone.” Imagem’s portfolio is valued at almost 500 million euros ($700 million), said Michel Meijs, a spokesman on behalf of ABP, the world’s third-largest pension fund.

“Each time the songs are played on the radio, a CD is sold, or parts of the tunes are used in a commercial, a play or a musical, the cash register jingles,” Meijs said in a telephone interview today.

Michael Jackson had the three best-selling albums in the U.S. last week as sales jumped following the singer’s death, according to Nielsen SoundScan. “Number Ones” and “Essential Michael Jackson” sold 108,000 and 102,000 copies in the week ended June 28, the New York-based researcher said.

Imagem has owned the rights since February last year, when it bought several catalogs from UMG. The company also manages music-publishing rights for Britney Spears, Lionel Ritchie and Justin Timberlake, according to its Web site.

“For different, still unknown, reasons songs in the portfolio can become very popular all of a sudden,” Meijs said. “This is an example of that. That is one of the things you take into account when investing” in intellectual property rights, he said. He added that ABP had taken such incidents into account and doesn’t expect to raise its estimate for the return on its total music publishing portfolio following Jackson’s death.

Diversified Portfolio

ABP, which had 173 billion euros in assets under management at the end of 2008, sees music rights as a way to diversify its portfolio, Meijs said. Imagem may add songs to its catalogue as it aims to grow. Should Jackson’s Beatles rights come onto the market “we’d definitely look at that with interest,” he said.

The fund filed a recovery plan to the Dutch central bank this year after its ratio of assets to obligations fell below the regulatory threshold as returns from stocks and bonds dropped. The Heerlen, Netherlands-based fund’s coverage ratio of assets compared with future benefit payments was 97 percent at the end of May, ABP said June 12.

Dutch daily newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad reported today that Imagem also owns the rights to “Remember the Time” and “Dangerous.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Maud van Gaal in Amsterdam at mvangaal@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 3, 2009 11:34 EDT