Harare – Listed hospitality group, African Sun Limited said Group’s revenue for the half year ended June 30 2018 grew by 29 percent to $27.04 million, up from $21.01 million achieved in the comparable period last year.
Domestic and revenue growth revenue was 26 and 32 percent respectively.
Group Chairman, Alex Makamure said the revenue growth is attributable to a 10 percentage points increase in occupancy, from 45 percent reported same period last year to 55 percent augmented by the 9 percent growth in Average Daily Rate (ADR) from $89 to $97.
“Occupancy growth was driven by a strong performance from all our markets, with room nights sold for domestic, international and regional increasing by 16, 28 and 22 percent respectively. As a result revenue, revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased by 33 percent to $53 from $40 achieved last year,” he said.
Makamure said operating profit was $3.87 million up from $0.51 million reported last year driven by improved revenue and cost efficiencies.
In the period under review finance costs declined by a notable 33 percent from $0.49 million to $0.33 million due to loan repayments and lower average borrowing rates.
He said the Group’s trading and financial performance continued on an upward trajectory during the period under review.
“The Group registered a significant growth in profit to $3.11 million up from $0.19 million reported for the same period last year. The improved performance in this traditional trough is attributable to the growth in arrivals from our key source markets, in particular, Europe, Asia and United States of America, all on the back of global tourism resurgence.
“There was a remarkable increase in volumes across hotels, with city hotels benefiting significantly from elections, conferencing and corporate related business, whilst Victoria Falls area hotels benefitted from increased foreign arrivals.
“The positive trend was achieved despite the constrained macro-economic environment emanating from unresolved liquidity and foreign currency shortages. The cumulative impact of these macro-economic issues on our business is reflected in prices increases of imported inputs thereby putting pressure on our profit margins,” said Makamure.
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