Katrina eyes growth with bold new acquisitions

TO ANYONE who has set foot in a suburban shopping mall recently, the Bali-Thai restaurant chain is probably a familiar sight.

But what is likely less known is that the company that owns this chain began life as a nasi padang stall in a food court in Bishan around two decades ago.

That stall was set up in Junction 8 shopping mall in 1995 and was called Katrina Nasi Padang - not because of any particular person Alan Goh knew by that name but because it sold Indonesian food and Katrina was a popular name for women in Indonesia, says the president and chief executive officer of recently Catalist-listed Katrina Group.

Katrina listed in July through a placement-only initial public offering and was worth roughly S$70 million on the Singapore Exchange (SGX…