For the fiscal year ending December 2020, Sun International, a hotel and casino group, reported that the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on its business, with adjusted headline earnings falling from R763 million to a loss of R1.1 billion and an adjusted headline loss of 633 cents per share.
Income from continuing operations fell by 49 percent, from R11.8 billion in 2012 to R6.1 billion in 2013, while continuing adjusted EBITDA fell by 72 percent, falling from R3.2 billion in 2012 to R897 million in 2013, according to the company.
According to the company’s preliminary financial results for the first six months of the year in South Africa, revenue decreased by 55 percent to R2.5 billion from the previous comparable period, and adjusted EBITDA decreased by 95 percent to R80 million.
As a result of the resumption of trading in most operations on July 1, 2020,
income and adjusted EBITDA continued to improve steadily throughout the remaining six months until the transition to an adjusted level 3 lockdown, the imposition of the 8pm curfew, and the prohibition on the sale of alcoholic beverages in mid-December 2020.
According to the company, this resulted in a substantial decrease in activity as well as cancellations of reservations for the second part of December 2020 and into January 2021.
Overall revenue from the South African businesses fell by 48 percent from the previous year to R6 billion, with adjusted EBITDA falling by 70 percent to R984 million, according to the company.
The prolonged lockdown and anticipated slow recovery resulted in R1.3 billion in impairment charges for Sun International,
which included R900 million for Sun City, R180 million for Boardwalk, R96 million for The Maslow Sandton, R72 million for intangible assets, and R9 million for other individual assets.
In South Africa, casino revenue fell to R4 billion, a 50 percent decrease from the previous year, while rooms revenue fell 38 percent to R368 million and food and beverage revenue fell 37 percent to R335 million, both decreases from the previous year.
Even with severe trade limitations, South African casino revenue exhibited a favorable trend in the second half of the year, according to the organization, increasing from 52 percent in the third quarter to a whopping 71 percent in the final quarter of 2020 as a percentage of the previous year.