Chairman of Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment (SVREL), Solomon Sharpe, said the deal to acquire 10% of his company, Main Event Entertainment Group, is complementary, rather than conflicting. 

SVL recently acquired a 10% stake in Main Event, of which Sharpe is the CEO and Founder. He’s also Chairman of the Board of Directors for SVL’s wholly owned subsidiary, Supreme Ventures Racing & Entertainment Limited (SVREL).  However, Sharpe told Kalilah Reynolds on Taking Stock that he’s an outsider at SVL.

“I’m an independent Chairman there [SVREL] so I’m not a material stakeholder or anything like that in SVL. Just like the Independent Directors that we have at [Main Event] I’m the outside guy at SVL heading SVREL,” he said.

Sharpe said some persons may have been concerned based on his visibility in SVREL. However, he argued that while he does get a lot of publicity from the horse racing sector, he has no stake in the track. 

Sharpe does have ambitions of one day owning the track though. 

“There’s no conflict of interest. When you really dissect and understand things and know all the legal thoughts that went into it, it’s actually complementary vs conflict and it’s going to drive a lot of value for employees, key stakeholders,” he argued.

Sharpe said the acquisition will present more benefits to Main Event clients as they will be able to leverage SVL to tap into other regional territories.

“We have some clients that want to reach out to the region and we have ambitions to reach out to the region. SVL is already in Guyana; there’s a big oil find there and it has huge potential,” he reasoned.

At the same time, Sharpe disclosed that the recent acquisition deal was cemented despite the Head of Main Event’s Finance Committee, Ian Blair, advising of it being premature. He said Blair’s position was based on the company not being at its greatest value due to the fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In business you make these decisions and you keep moving,” Sharpe said, but noted that Main Event continues to look for opportunities to quickly turn around its fortunes.

Since the onset of the pandemic, Sharpe said the company has had to lay off several staff members and cut the salaries of others including himself to survive. He added that the company also stepped up its collection drive in order to secure a stable cash balance to remain afloat during the health crisis.

“When SVL looked at all the business we were doing there and saw that it was not just about the pomp and pageantry and how well we were managing at the backend, they said that’s what we want to be a part of,” Sharpe said.

He added that the relationship between the two companies was inevitable as gaming runs parallel to entertainment. He said SVL realized it needed to have had a presence in the entertainment sector after looking more broadly on their business model. 

He said through the planned production company, both SVL and Main Event are looking to become regional powerhouses in the entertainment sector.

“I’d like to think that in all the work we [SVL] have done, we are number 1 and if we’re gonna be the biggest gaming entity in the Caribbean, why not have relations with the biggest entertainment company in Jamaica?” he questioned. 

Time for phased reopening of entertainment 

Meanwhile, Sharpe said he believes it’s now time for the entertainment sector to be given a chance to prove it can be responsible. The local entertainment sector has been closed for over a year due to the COVID-19 restrictions to slow the spread of the virus. 

“I think we’re ready now and I think we can manage. We can’t move from 0 to 60 overnight so let’s take it in incremental fives until we get to tens and we’ll eventually get to the point where we were pre COVID-19.”

He said stakeholders are eagerly waiting to hear what the Prime Minister will say in his next presentation but are mindful that the measures have been kept in place to protect lives.