St. James Power Station is gunning to be a night entertainment powerhouse by tying up with the two upcoming integrated resorts (IR) in Singapore. It is already in talks with the developers of Sentosa's Resorts World and Marina Bay Sands.
From an old power station to a powerhouse in the nightclubbing scene, St James also looks set to be the first pure nightclub firm listed locally.
This follows its plans for a reverse takeover of Sesdaq-listed IT firm JK Technology.
And it is already making aggressive plans to generate revenue growth. For a start, it is eyeing opportunities across the other side of the harbour.
Dennis Foo, CEO, St James, said: "We will be going into IR and we are in serious talks and we met many times with Resort World. We have the synergy, the proximity of St James with Resort World is there and definitely we can engage each other, value add to each other. So obviously, we'll have some participation within the IR."
St James is also in talks with Marina Bay Sands. It says there are synergies to be found in food and beverages.
Mr Foo said: "Cafes, restaurants, even unique bars and restaurant concepts, can be created. Today, there is no line drawn between restaurants and bars really, especially since both restaurants and bars do not allow smoking. Hospitality can come very naturally in the form of restaurants for us to invest in."
With FJ Benjamin being one of its major shareholders, St James is also exploring how it can ride on the fashion flair of the retailer. With its stable of artistes set to grow to the hundreds, artiste management is also seen as an area of growth.
The company says it expects to exceed its forecast of S$16 million in cumulative net profits for financial years 2008 and 2009.
Having transformed the power station into a mega nightclub, St James says it is not ruling out offers it received to do the same for power stations in London and Indonesia. But it first wants to focus on growing its market share in Singapore in the next three years.
Mr Foo said: "We know the intricacies of converting a power station into a night entertainment complex. And it was very challenging. But now that we know this, we'd be able to do any power station any where in the world."
St James says it is taking a cautious approach towards venturing into big cities in China, preferring to take small steps, and understand the terrain first.
It plans to retain key staff through stock options and reward its 18,000 paying members with share placement. - CNA/ch
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