Hotel and gaming group Sun International said that trading for the quarter to 31 March 2006 was satisfactory with overall revenue 13% up on the previous year.

March revenues were however only 10% ahead of the previous year due to the non-comparability as Easter fell in March in the previous year.

Revenues for the month of April were 16% ahead of last year. Gaming revenues were 14% up on the previous year in the quarter with all the group's major casinos performing well.

The average room occupancy of the group's hotels and resorts for the quarter at 71% was 3 percentage points above the previous year notwithstanding the non-comparability because of Easter.

The group's Zambian resorts average room occupancy increased by 4 percentage points to 62% in the quarter reflecting the ongoing increase in international tourism demand.

The overall EBITDA margin in the group continued to show improvement over last year at 35.3%.

"The group continues to expect good growth in adjusted headline earnings per share for the full year, albeit that the growth in the second half of the year is expected to be below that experienced in the first half," the group said in a trade update.

I-Net Bridge
 
Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge