PRESSURE on consumer wealth and sentiment in SA and the effect of the Ebola epidemic and security fears offshore made 2014 a tough year for Tsogo Sun‚ the company said on Thursday.

Despite these factors resulting in reduced hotel occupancies‚ the company’s income for the year ended March 31 was up 5% to R11.3bn.

“Tsogo has shown resilience‚ good overhead control and has remained highly cash generative. In addition‚ we have maintained our focus on our growth strategy‚” said CEO Marcel von Aulock.

The group believes its development and merger and acquisition activity alleviated the effect of tough trading conditions‚ with both the casino and hotel divisions achieving year-on-year growth in revenues.

The company said that despite the tough current operating environment‚ it continued to allocate capital and spent R5.9bn on various expansionary activities.

“We expect the trading conditions to remain under pressure in the short term as indicated by consumer sentiment. However‚ we are of the view that the actions we are taking now, and will continue to take, will place Tsogo Sun in good stead once the economy recovers‚” said Mr von Aulock.

Adjusted headline earnings per share‚ at 175c‚ were down 1% from the year-earlier period‚ while the final dividend per share remained unchanged at 60c.

Source: BDLive