Genting Confirms Talks To Build Hotel In Sports Hub

Source : The Business Times, January 22, 2008

Shatec signs pact to be master caterer of hub for 25 years

Genting International plc (GIL) yesterday confirmed a BT report that it is currently in preliminary talks with Singapore Sports Hub Consortium to build a hotel in the Sports Hub.

In an announcement on the Singapore Exchange, GIL said 'preliminary planning suggests the future hotel could have over 500 rooms which would significantly add to the managed room stock of the company's integrated resort on Sentosa when it is operational.'

This is not expected to have any material impact on the consolidated net tangible assets and earnings per share of the company for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2008, it added.

Representatives of its subsidiary Resorts World at Sentosa Pte Ltd were present at a celebration yesterday for the SSH consortium for being chosen as the preferred bidder for the Sports Hub - to be called Premier Park - from among three short-listed consortiums.

Krist Boo, deputy director of communications at Resorts World at Sentosa told BT that the proposed arrangement is for GIL to build and operate the hotel over the 25-year tenure but details on the hotel itself are still being worked out.

Resorts World at Sentosa, the integrated resorts project by Genting International, is building six hotels with a total of 1,830 rooms by 2010.

A BT report had quoted managing director of Dragages Singapore Ludwig Reichhold as saying that the consortium is in discussion with GIL to invest in a hotel in the Sports Hub, with a potential construction cost of $200 million.

The report added that the SSH consortium is in talks to team up with Frasers Centrepoint on the Sports Hub's retail space.

Talks with GIL and Frasers Centrepoint were already underway during the tendering process. An SSH booklet on the overview of its proposal contained logos of its team members including GIL and Frasers Centrepoint. A spokesperson for Dragages confirmed that discussions dated back to 2006.

Dragages Singapore is the lead partner in the SSH consortium and is a subsidiary of France-based Bouygues Construction, which has been involved in more than 30 public-private-partnership (PPP) projects world wide and developed infrastructures such as the Stade de France stadium in Paris and the Asia World Expo in Hong Kong.

Under the Public-Private-Partnership arrangement, the government will pay the consortium a total net present value of $1.87 billion to design, finance, build and operate the Sports Hub over the 25-year tenure. The construction cost of the Sport Hub is estimated to be some $1.2 billion.

The Sports Hub, which occupies a 35-hectare site in Kallang, is the first and largest sports facilities infrastructure PPP project in the world.

Another organisation set to ride the buzz surrounding the Sports Hub is the Singapore International Hotel and Tourism College (Shatec), which has signed an agreement with the SSH consortium to be the master caterer over the 25-year tenure.

Shatec will provide a complete set of lifestyle food and beverage catering solutions for all special events and activities at the Sports Hub.

'As the master caterer, Shatec will be part of all decisions on catering within the hub and will also be the primary operator of the central and satellite kitchens, corporate boxes and hospitality suites,' Shatec chief executive Steven Chua said. 'This in turn shall provide our students the best exposure to the spectrum of hospitality and tourism opportunities.'

The consortium's comprehensive sporting calendar guarantees at least 90 event days at the National Stadium and 46 days at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Given the number of events to be held here, the demand for F&B catering at the Sports Hub is expected to be robust, he added.

To ensure timely and responsive on-site management operations, Shatec's F&B services will be delivered under a new corporate subsidiary, which will have overall purview over the entire hub except for the retail and commercial areas.