Sun International Hotels Limited is a resort hotel chain and casino destination from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

created by

Sol Kerzner Solomon Kerzner, (23 August 1935 – 21 March 2020) was a South African accountant and business magnate. He founded both of South Africa's largest hotel groups, the Southern Sun Hotel Group and Sun International. He was also the Founder, Chair ...

, best known for its Sun City Resort near

Rustenburg Rustenburg (; , Afrikaans and Dutch: ''City of Rest'') is a city at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West province, South Africa (549,575 in 2011 and 626,522 in the 2016 census). In 20 ...

in the

North West Province North West is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Mahikeng. The province is located to the west of the major population centre of Gauteng and south of Botswana. History North West was incorporated after the end of Apartheid in 1994, an ...

. Specialising in gaming, hospitality and entertainment, the company owns 42.5% of the South African casino market. Sun International Hotels is headquartered in the Bahamas, on Paradise Island, which is the world's largest island resort, 70% of which is owned by the company. Sun International was incorporated in South Africa in 1967 and also runs a head office in

Sandton Sandton is an upscale commercial and residential district north of the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. It forms part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. The name of the city came from the combination of two of its suburbs ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

History

Their hotel business traces its roots back to 1969, when the Southern Sun Hotel Company was created when

South African Breweries South African Breweries (officially The South African Breweries Limited, informally SAB) is a major brewery headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa and was a wholly owned subsidiary of SABMiller until its interests were sold to Anheuser-B ...

and South African businessman

joined forces. By 1983, Southern Sun Hotels was operating 35 hotels, and generating a net income of $35 million. At this time, South African Breweries split its hotel interests into two; Sun International, headed by Sol Kerzner, retained all of the casino hotels located in the areas that South Africa had designated as "independent homelands" and had Southern Sun as a 20% stakeholder. Sol Kerzner sold all of his share in Southern Sun to focus on Sun International (South Africa). Southern Sun retained the company's other hotels in South Africa, and remained focused on the hotel market rather than casinos. 1984 saw the commencement of Kersaf Investments Limited, a company that took great interest in Sun International (South Africa). This commencement was by a scheme of arrangement, such that Sun International would form one of Kersaf's subsidiaries. Kersaf was more focused on cinemas, restaurants, shopping and leisure at first, but as the next twenty years passed, its hotel and casino interests thrived under the Sun International brand, and slowly Kersaf began to dispose of its other interests and acquire more share in Sun International. After the end of Apartheid in South Africa in 1994, the so-called homelands were re-integrated into the new South Africa. This allowed Southern Sun to develop its own gaming resorts and began to compete increasingly with Sun International. In 2000, Southern Sun sold its stake in Sun International to Kersaf Investments Limited, who then continued to acquire minority interests in Sun International. In 2004, Kersaf Investments Limited merged with Sun International to form Sun International Limited, the company that exists today. In early 2015, Sun International sold its hotels in

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

, Lesotho,

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

and

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

Minor International Minor International is a Thai multi-national company based in Bangkok, Thailand. The three core businesses of Minor are hospitality, restaurants and lifestyle brands distribution, operated under subsidiary companies Minor Hotels, Minor Food, an ...

. Since mid-2015, these have been run as hotels of the Avani Group. As of 2017, Sun International Limited owns or is involved in 19 international hotels, casinos and resorts.

Properties

Today, Sun International's operations include integrated resorts, luxury hotel products, limited payout machine slot routes, as well as casinos. The Sun City Resort annually hosts the

Miss South Africa Miss South Africa is a national beauty pageant in South Africa that selects South African representatives to compete in two of the Big Four international beauty pageants, Miss World and Miss Universe, and also selects another representative ...

pageant and the

Nedbank Golf Challenge The Nedbank Golf Challenge, previously known as the Million Dollar Challenge, is an annual men's professional golf tournament played at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City, North West province, South Africa. It was first played in 1981 and ...

References

{{Witwatersrand companies Companies established in 1967 1967 establishments in South Africa Companies based in Sandton Gambling companies of South Africa Hospitality companies of South Africa Hotels in South Africa InterContinental Hotels Group brands Casinos in South Africa Companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange