Construction of African Sun’s academy on course
Business Reporter
CONSTRUCTION of African Sun’s hospitality training academy in Equatorial Guinea is on course with the facility expected to open early next year. Group chief executive Mr Shingi Munyeza said the facility was expected to open its doors during the first quarter of next year. He said that on completion the academy would cater for 200 students. "These would be drawn from the host country and its neighbours such as Gabon and Cameroon among others," he said. Apart from meeting the group’s human resources needs, the academy was also expected to train personnel for other hotels.
The initiative was expected to ensure the group would have "brain gain rather than brain drain" and would mean there would be uniform structures across the continent in terms of qualification and training. It was also expected to help boost the group’s operations on the continent where it is already operating hotels in Nigeria and South Africa with additional hotels being planned for other countries such as Tanzania and Botswana. The group was aiming for a top three ranking in sub-Saharan Africa under African Sun where it hopes to capitalise on strong collateral in southern Africa. In his statement accompanying the group’s half-year results for the period ending March 31 2008, African Sun’s chairman Mr Eben Makonese said human capital remains a key success factor as the group penetrates Africa. "The group has therefore, intensified its training and development programmes in the region," Mr Makonese revealed. The academy, which is a joint project with the Equatorial Guinea government, was being undertaken with the group’s in-house training school — the Hospitality Training Academy. African Sun’s in-house training academy aims to open similar satellite academies in West Africa where there would be a centralised record system to cater for the emigrants to the region. The group’s academy has received accolades for its role in developing human resource. It was recently awarded the Human Resources Development Award by the Zimbabwe Institute of Management (ZIM). African Sun’s initiative comes as another local hotel giant Rainbow Tourism Group recently opened its first hotel school, the Rainbow Business School two months ago. The school which offer graduates the American Hotel and Lodging Certificate, caters for in-house staff as well as graduates from hotel schools and staff from other companies within the tourism sector.
Labels: AFRICAN SUN LIMITED, HOSPITALITY SECTOR
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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.
Labels: AFRICAN SUN LIMITED, ZIMABWE
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