Sun International boosts revenues but sees slower full-year profit growth

The casino and hotel firm said revenue in the three months to end-March rose 20 percent to us$ 250 million while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) jumped 27 percent to us$ 94.1 million.

The company, South Africa’s biggest casino operator, expects to notch up continued strong growth in turnover and EBITDA in the final quarter of its financial year. It said revenue in April rose 17 percent to us$ 86.7 million. But full-year growth in adjusted headline earnings per share would be "slightly lower" than first-half growth of 32 percent because last year’s figure was boosted by a 52 million rand one-off gain.

Sun International, which owns the Sun City casino and theme park complex north-west of Johannesburg, said revenue was driven by higher sales from its casino business, which rose 21 percent to us$ 193.

Shares in Sun International rose 1.03 percent to us$ 20.9, outperforming the Johannesburg index of mid-cap stocks, which was slightly firmer. Sun is trying to expand outside Africa and said in February it would probably bid for Britain’s first supercasino.

It has also snapped up a 40 percent stake in a Chilean firm that holds a 15-year casino licence for the capital Santiago and plans to build a major hotel and casino complex there. Sun said on Wednesday it expected to start construction in June with the casino scheduled to open in the middle of 2008.