(HERALD) African Sun on expansion drive

African Sun on expansion drive
Business Reporter

AFRICAN Sun Limited has unveiled a massive programme to expand its hotels and pursue secondary listing on regional and international stock exchanges within the next three to five years. In its half-year results for the period to March 31, 2008 released last Tuesday, the group said it intends to use money raised from the secondary listing to meet its expansion programmes.

To this end, African Sun was considering listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Botswana Stock Exchange, the Mauritian Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.

It said its expansion programme within the country was progressing well with the construction of a new hotel in Beitbridge expected to start in this half of the financial year.

In addition, the group said enhancement of entertainment facilities at Elephant Hills was set to start during the current period.

For the half-year, African Sun reported $133 trillion net profit in historical cost terms.

The group’s revenue grew by 155 363 percent to $98 trillion while operating costs rose to $52 trillion.

The Zimbabwean operations contributed 84 percent to the group’s revenue while regional operations contributed the remaining 16 percent.

Hotel occupancy for the group grew from 38 percent achieved in the prior period to close at 47 percent in the current period.

African Sun however, said its performance was weighed down by price controls and the impact of elections on the industry.

To mitigate against this, the group said it would seek to increase the ratio of regional contributions to 75 percent in the outlook period.

Meanwhile, the group says it plans to increase rooms under its management outside Zimbabwe by more than 1 500 percent within the next six months.

Rooms under its management outside the country were expected to increase from the current 73 to 1 200 by the end of the year.

Management said it had already added two hotels to the group which include a 151-roomed conference hotel in Johannesburg and a 159-roomed facility in Nigeria, the Obudu Ranch Resort.

In addition, the group said preparations for the opening in August this year of Clear Essence California Resort and Spa in Lagos are at an advanced stage.

Refurbishment of another hotel in Kano is expected to be completed before year-end.

The redevelopment and re-branding of a hotel in Arusha, Tanzania, to Holiday Inn was progressing satisfactorily.

Elsewhere, the group said considerable progress had been made towards the establishment of the first hotel school in Mongomo, Equatorial Guinea.

The school was being established in partnership with the Equatorial Guinea Government.

The group also advised that the process of constructing a 160-roomed hotel in Gaborone had commenced and was scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2010.