Charlotte Mathews And I-Net Bridge
2 November 2004
Cape Town — Sun International said yesterday it would be opening its new casino, hotel, conference and dining complex, the R727m Sibiya Casino and Entertainment Kingdom near Durban, on November 19.
The group, which has stakes in several other casino and hotel developments, such as Sun City in Gauteng and GrandWest near Cape Town, also announced at the weekend that it would be helping to finance the Mbizana Development Trust to buy a stake in Transun, which owns the Wild Coast Sun on the south coast.
Sun International will sell a 30% stake in Transun to the Mbizana trust for R25,5m by way of a special purpose vehicle. The trust will also participate in management fees.
Sun International CE Peter Bacon said the agreement with the Mbizana Trust followed other empowerment deals by the group in other provinces.
It "would go a long way to further eradicate any notion of privileged exclusivity in the tourism and leisure industry", he said.
Sun International also has empowerment partners in a number of other ventures, including GrandWest/The Table Bay Hotel, Carnival City and the Bloemfontein Casino, and Sibiya/Sugarmill and Zimbali Lodge.
In the past financial year it helped Grand Parade Investments increase its stake in GrandWest/The Table Bay and it helped Meriteng Investments to increase its stake in the Flamingo Casino near Kimberley.
Sibiya will replace the temporary Sugarmill Casino, which has been operating for more than two years.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2004 Business Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
