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HARARE – Hotel and leisure chain, African Sun said on Friday it has terminated a deal it entered into over three and a half years ago with South African group, Legacy Hospitality Management Services Limited (Legacy) to manage five of its local hotels.
Signed amid pomp and fanfare and touted as the best move towards improving profitability, growth and visibility of the hotels in September 2015, the deal entailed a $60 million facelift of the properties.
The five hotels which were put under Legacy management and were then re-branded include Elephant Hills in Victoria Falls, Monomotapa in the capital, Troutbeck Resort in Nyanga, Hwange Safari Lodge and the Kingdom at Victoria Falls Hotel.
While thanking Legacy for “its association over this period,” African Sun said management of the hotels had reverted back to its owner and a handover/takeover process was underway.
“We would like to assure our stakeholders that this termination will not adversely affect the delivery of services at the relevant hotels,” said African Sun company secretary Venon Musimbe.
“If anything, we remain firmly focused on providing excellent service to our customers and growing value for all our shareholders.”
The relationship between the two companies was not always rosy during the subsistence of the partnership amid reports earlier this year that the firms had gone for arbitration, over an undisclosed matter.
A general recovery in Zimbabwe’s tourism sector performance in the past few years, has spurred the performance of the once struggling hotel group, which in the last reporting period ended December, 2018 saw its net profit more than double to $10.14 million, declaring a second interim dividend of 0.3862 US cents per share. – New Ziana
Bongani Ndlovu