Shares of Catalist-listed St James Holdings shot up on Monday morning after an announcement on Friday last week that real estate developer Perennial Real Estate Holdings was staging a $1.56 billion reverse takeover of the entertainment operator.

St James' shares jumped 27 per cent, or 1.5 cents, to 6.9 cents by 1pm.

Perennial is the sponsor of mainboard-listed Perennial China Retail Trust, which also saw a slight boost to its price.

The trust's unit price had risen one cent to 55.5 cents by 1pm on Monday, a 2 per cent increase.

A reverse takeover, or backdoor listing, lets a private firm get listed on a stock exchange without going through a costly initial public offering.

Under the deal, Perennial will inject its real estate business into St James and rename the listed entity Perennial Real Estate Holdings Limited (PREHL). St James' existing leisure and entertainment business will be taken private. After the injection, the listed entity will also offer to acquire all units of Perennial China Retail Trust at a price of 70 cents per unit via a share swap.

The ultimate aim is for PREHL to combine Perennial's portfolio of assets in both Singapore and China.