Wanetsha Mosinyi
18 April 2008
Gaborone — Botswana Stock Exchange-listed group Chobe Holdings Limited has further increased its footprint in the tourism sector by its recent acquisition of Ker and Downey Botswana and The Bookings Company.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Group said subsequent to a shareholders meeting on April 10, the two companies are now wholly owned subsidiaries of Chobe Holdings Limited.
The 20 857 092 ordinary shares issued in satisfaction of the respective purchase considerations were listed on the BSE, the statement said. Chobe Holdings offers luxury tourist accommodation in a total of eight lodges situated in the Chobe National Park, in the Okavango Delta, and in Namibia. The Group also operates tourist transfers to its own lodges and third party sites using its own fleet of aircraft and its property near Maun Airport as an operational base.
The newly acquired entity Ker and Downey also operates in the luxury tourist trade, with the main income stream being generated through foreign visitors. Ker and Downey's marketing is strong in the United States as a result of its symbiotic relationship with its preferred tour operator in Houston, Travel Marketing Services, which trades as Ker and Downey and which principally represents the brand in the United States.
The Ker and Downey brand name is well known in other parts of Africa, and although Ker and Downey Botswana is no longer affiliated with any other safari company operating under the Ker and Downey name, there is strong international brand recognition associated with the name. Ker and Downey is a subsidiary of Thebe Investment Corporation based in South Africa, although it was originally founded by Harry Selby, one of the original partners of Ker Downey and Selby.
Kanana Safaris and Kanana Ventures are wholly owned Ker and Downey subsidiary companies incorporated in Botswana. In addition, Ker and Downey owns 25 percent of BVP Ltd, an air charter company incorporated in Zambia, trading as Victoria Falls Pro-flight. The Bookings Company is 50 percent owned subsidiary of Desert and Delta Safaris, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chobe Holdings Limited. It is registered in Botswana, as is its 100 percent owned dormant subsidiary, Xugana.
The Bookings Company is based in Maun and arranges a large proportion of all tourist air transport in northern Botswana operating under the trade name of Safari Air. The company owns a number of aircraft to service tourist traffic generated through its reservations operation. The aircraft presently operated by Ker and Downey will be integrated into this operation. "This will give the company a better critical mass, flexibility and a competitive edge in the transport of visitors," the Group said in its end of year results recently.
Through acquisitions of camps and the purchase of minority interests over the years, Chobe Holdings has become a leading player in the hospitality industry in the country and the only major group which is Botswana owned. "With a limited number of sites available, which is not likely to increase in the foreseeable future, each camp that Chobe is able to control and market adds to its competitive edge over its opposition," said the Group. "Since the Group's major competitors are mostly multinational concerns committed to a presence in the Delta, the likelihood of further high quality camps becoming available is remote." The Directors of the Group said in the end of year results that there are few transactions which are at various stages of negotiation.
The Group wants to acquire the Desert and Delta Safaris African Travel, which is a South African registered marketing and reservations company operating in Cape Town. The Group has recently acquired a further 33 percent for cash, and has reached agreement in principle with the single remaining shareholder to acquire those shares which it does not already own.
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