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GAMING FOR AFRICA Tsogo Sun Gaming’s Income Jumps 57%


Tsogo Sun Gaming’s recent preliminary results show its income for the year ended 31 March climbed a massive 57%, jumping to R8,9-billion, with operating profit shooting up to R2,7-billion. This against the backdrop of a strong rebound by Tsogo Sun Hotels, which unbundled from casino and hospitality giant Tsogo Sun Holdings in 2019 prior to the Covid fallout, and has taken the opportunity to rebrand ‘back’ to Southern Sun. The group released its latest financial results


on Thursday afternoon, confirming a rebound for the year ended March 31, 2022. However, it is yet to recover to pre-Covid levels. Shareholders will vote on changing the company name from Tsogo Sun Hotels Limited to Southern Sun Limited. The group’s gaming arm, Tsogo Sun Gaming’s income for the year jumped to R8.9 billion (2021: R5.3 billion) while operating profit shot up to R2.7 billion (2021: R977 million). Profit attributable to equity holders of the company soared to R1.4 billion (2021: R21 million). Furthermore, headline earnings per share grew to 110.2 cents per share (2021: headline loss per share of 3.1 cents per share).


The Board of Directors decided to postpone


the decision of the possible declaration of a final dividend in respect of the year ended 31 March 2022, until the Board meeting to be held in August 2022.


Company prospects The 2023 financial year may still be impacted by government’s response to the pandemic. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the July 2021 riots and the recent flooding in KwaZulu-Natal, the return to a new normal will reveal how discretionary spend has been impacted. Ancillary offerings at the casino precincts have


improved steadily since October 2021 with improved contributions being made towards revenue generated, but as with net gaming win, falling short of pre-COVID-19 levels. The LPM division’s strong performance should be bolstered by the rollout of additional machines which is gathering momentum for the first time in two years. It should be noted that the October 2021 to December 2021 and January 2022 to March 2022


quarterly results were not significantly different. The effort to further reduce debt to the


targeted less than 2.0 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio, will continue. With potential acquisitions, a new online


platform, the potential in-house management of the group’s hotels, an improved hospitality offering at the Gold Reef City precinct, trial solar projects and various other initiatives, 2023 is set to be a busy, but exciting, year. The group’s focus is transitioning away from survival mode to building an improved, sustainable business for the future. “We thank all affected stakeholders who


supported us over the extremely tough past two years and we particularly express our appreciation to our lenders who assisted in placing Tsogo Sun Gaming in a much stronger position today,” the preliminary results announcement stated.


Uncertainty Surrounds Betfred Acquisition of South African Betting Licences


Following a newspaper exposé of Betfred’s planned acquisition of 12 South African sportsbetting licences from the estate of a deceased Gauteng operator, the issue has become mired in uncertainty and controversy, with the Gauteng Gambling Board ultimately tasked as arbiter of the legality of the acquisition. This comes in the wake of an article in The Star


on April 11 2022 which revealed that Sepels Sportsbet may not be the lawful licence holders of the 12 gambling licences they claim they hold and intend to sell to Betfred as part of a transaction that requires the approval of the Gauteng Gambling Board. The Star revealed, in its original article, that the 12 gambling licences were issued in the name of the original founder of Sepels Sportsbet, the deceased Cyril Sepel and not to the company itself and that the licences fell in the estate of Cyril Sepel and were unable to be transferred to the company. Lightcatch Limited, better known as Betfred,


which claims to be the biggest independent bookmaker in the world, is seeking the permission of the Gauteng Gambling Board to buy Sepels Sportsbet. Betfred, mainly based in the UK, has disclosed to the board that they would use their South African operation, Betfred SA, to own 70% of Sepels and that a brand new entity, Leaena (Pty) Ltd would hold the other 30%. The shareholder of Leaena is the powerhouse South African businesswoman Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe, who was SA Businesswoman of the Year in 2007 and


previously the chief executive of Alcatel SA and Hewlett Packard SA. She is also a director at Vodacom. In a general notice to the public on April 5, 2022, the Gauteng Gambling Board announced the intention of Betfred to buy Sepels and invited interested parties to make submissions if they objected to the transaction. The Star obtained a copy of the application that Morne Pieterse, head of Legal and Compliance of Betfred SA submitted to the board. Pieterse informed the Board he did not want to


disclose the sale agreement between Betfred and Sepels because it contained confidential information. Sepels had been for sale for many years after the death of its founder, Cyril Sepel in 2013. The jewel in the crown of Sepels is the cluster of the 12 gambling licences they claim to own in Gauteng. Prior to the board announcing the intended


transaction and inviting the public to comment and object, The Star was reportedly approached by a whistle-blower who informed the newspaper of the intended transaction and the controversy that surrounds it. “The licences were in Cyril’s name and after his death fell within his deceased estate. Many local companies looked at buying Sepels but couldn’t get around the fact that the licences, worth more than R100 million, were not in the company’s name but in Cyril’s name,” the Star article quotes. In a follow-up article, The Star also claims it is in possession of the application that Pieterse submitted


to the Gauteng Gambling Board to approve the purchase of Sepels Sportsbet and aslo alleges that: “What is omitted from the application is the sale agreement and the purchase consideration which Pieterse contended contained privileged information. The Star has been reliably informed that Betfred has offered to pay Sepels Sportsbet more than R100 000 000.” The Star article also claims to have spoken to an


anonymous member of the Gauteng Gambling Board, who has been quoted as saying: “We [The Gauteng Gambling Board] are accountable persons as defined in section 34 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act and we have a duty to look into and if necessary, report to the Hawks, conduct we reasonably suspect to have a fraudulent undertone. No transaction will be approved unless we are satisfied that nothing untoward or unlawful occurred,” a board member said.” In the meantime interested parties have until


May 8 2022 engage the Gauteng Gambling Board to object to the transaction.


(Original article, courtesy The Star - Edited for brevity and clarity) JUNE 2022 25 From left to right, Kamal Athapattu (Casino Manager),


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