African Sun

AfricanSun
Company type	Public
Traded as	ZSE: ASUN; Zimbabwe Industrial Index;
Industry	Hotels
Founded	1968
Headquarters	Harare, Zimbabwe
Key people	E.T Shangwa, CEO. Alex Makamure, Chairman
Revenue	USD 35.2 million (2009)
Number of employees	2250
Website	Africansunhotels.com

African Sun Limited, is a Zimbabwe based hospitality management company established in 1968. It operates in the hospitality and leisure industry through a number of hotels, resorts, casinos and timeshare operations throughout Zimbabwe and South Africa. It is listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange^[1] and is a constituent of the Zimbabwe Industrial Index.

History

The group spun off from the Delta Corporation in 2003 with Shingi Munyeza as CEO.^[2]

In 2011, African Sun retrieved from the management of The Grace hotel in Rosebank, Cape Town.^[3] By 2012, it managed 1,000 rooms.^[2] In 2009, Africa Sun welcomed the US President Barack Obama in its Holiday Inn-managed hotel at the Accra airport (in Ghana).^[4]

In January 2015, the company sold its hotels in Ghana and Nigeria, and announced a year later its withdrawal from regional operations to focus on its domestic market.^[5] In March 2015, Shingi Munyeza left and E.T Shangwa became the CEO.^[6]

In February 2016, African Sun paid a 200,000-dollar water bill to the municipality of Victoria Falls to clear its outstanding 383,000-dollar debt.^[7] In July 2016, African Sun bought 2,050 m2 of the Harare Gardens to extend the Crowne Plaza Momomotapa Hotel, a deal that was in the pipes since 2010.^[8] In October 2017, Brainworks, African Sun's holding company, was introduced in the JSE, the first Zimbabwe-based company to be indexed on the South African stock exchange.^[9] In July 2018, Nkala stepped down, and Alex Makamure was appointed new chairman of the board.^[10]

In 2018, the group's revenue grew 32% to 68.5 million dollars,^[11] and it spent 5.8 million dollars in refurbishments.^[12] In 2019, the Zimbabwe fuel protests led to revenue drops for African Sun.^[13]

In May 2019, African Sun terminated its deal with the South-African Legacy Hospitality regarding the management of 5 of its hotels.^[11] The deal was running since October 2015, and implied that Legacy Hospitality would refurbish the properties it would manage.^[14] The deal cancellation was justified by "disagreements", and African sun assured that Legacy Hospitality was actually not in charge of refurbishing the hotels under management.^[15] Two months later, Legacy Hospitality appealed the cancellation in court.^[16]