Pulse Investments Limited is set to revive Pulse Global, an ambitious project it launched back in 2019 which was derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project, which was done in collaboration with partners out of Africa including
Fashion One media platforms alongside Irie Jam 360 TV and Downsound Entertainment which covers London, New York & Toronto, was expected to cut a pathway for Pulse Investment to become a global entity in celebration of its 40th anniversary.

But now that business has normalised from the pandemic, Pulse’s CEO Kingsley Cooper wants to take another shot at what it has labelled “its most ambitious forward push” to date.

“Now we can revisit this game-changing initiative,” Cooper told the Jamaica Observer in response to queries sent to the company.

“More focus will be placed on our international business such as the Pulse Global project, expanded model searches in the wider Caribbean and North America, as well as new TV shows broadcast in more international markets,” he added.

Key components of Pulse Global largely surround the modelling division of Pulse’s business, but it will also bring increased business to Pulse’s hospitality and real estate operations.

Overall, Pulse wants to expand and deepen its role in projects and events in fashion, modelling, television programming and entertainment in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. It has also pitched plans to rapidly expand its international model footprint through searches in Africa, the United States and the Caribbean, including the successful high school model search.

Models will also be signed from all markets in which the new global Pulse operates.

Copper says Pulse will take the best of Africa and the Caribbean in fashion, modelling and entertainment to major markets in Europe and North America, starting with London, New York and Toronto, before adding a new city each year.

Over the past three years, Pulse Investment has largely focused on its real estate projects — the Lifestyle Village and Pulse Homes on the Villa Ronai Property in Stony Hill, St Andrew.

So far, Pulse has completed the 70-unit Lifestyle Village at Villa Ronai which includes the 16-unit Pulse Lofts gated community, consisting of studios, one- and two-bedroom strata units.It has also largely completed infrastructure work including approximately 2,500 ft of roadway leading up to the 30 Pulse Homes sites from Old Stony Hill Road, which includes excavations, a retaining wall and a bridge.

“Work has also commenced on the actual home sites,” Cooper said, adding that a limited number, 40 per cent, from the first phase of the Pulse Homes are already sold.

“We took a decision from the start to limit sales until we were certain what our actual costs would be,” he continued.

Funding for the Pulse Homes real estate project is coming from a combination of a $1.1-billion bond, up to 90 per cent of purchasers’ deposits and up to $720 million in potential sales of Pulse Lofts units.

Overall, Cooper says Pulse has used less than one-third of the total funding expected to be available for the first phase of the Pulse Homes project.

Real estate currently makes up approximately 65 per cent of Pulse’s business, Cooper said, but once the Pulse Homes project is completed and units are sold, real estate is expected to account for roughly 40 per cent of Pulse’s recurring revenues, based on rental income and investment property gains.

The other 60 per cent is expected to come from media, hospitality, model management, events, branding and merchandising, he said, all adding that Pulse’s revived global initiative will help to drive that growth.

Despite a 23 per cent dip in earnings for the quarter ended December 31, 2023, Cooper remains optimistic about Pulse Investments’ future growth prospects.

“For the future, we plan to continue to expand our business. There will always be dips and spikes in revenues and profit, but overall, our growth has been steady and robust,” Cooper said.

“Expansion means new products as well as growth in existing ones. Areas negatively affected by COVID 19, which are still being mitigated in some cases, are coming back on stream where we consider the same appropriate. Innovation and the use of new technologies remain keys to future success,” he continued.