Casino firm Tsogo Sun Holdings - which owns Hemingways Casino in East London and has been linked to a possible bid for the licence held by Sun International at The Boardwalk in Port Elizabeth when it comes up for renewal next year - has agreed to buy Century Casinos Africa for R460-million.

Tsogo Sun bid unsuccessfully for the casino licence in the western part of the Eastern Cape when it was first awarded nearly a decade ago, having planned to site the complex in the Port Elizabeth harbour area.

Transnet agreed to lease land in the Port Elizabeth harbour in 1998 for R300000 and then in a bizarre twist found that it had agreed to hand over a portion of the manganese ore terminal. It ended up having to part with land, including a section of the Kings Beach parking area, that is now valued at R1,67-billion.

Tsogo Sun subsequently changed its name to Southernport and successfully claimed the lease on the land for development purposes.

To get the land back on which part of the manganese facility stood - without which, as Transnet group executive Vuyo Khala noted, the manganese plant “would have been rendered inoperable” - Transnet agreed to part with two other pieces of land in exchange.

One piece of land was at Morton Bay and the other a section of the Kings Beach parking area.

Those now belong to Southernport, whose directors - businessman Charles Erasmus, Port Elizabeth attorney Robin Jefferson, Port Elizabeth Congress of the People and former ANC and SACP heavyweight Mtiwabo Ndube, and businessmen Gosley Nondumo and Crosby Ximiya - hold more than 33 hectares of prime land.

A statement posted this week on the website of the Nasdaq-listed casino entertainment firm Century Casinos said that Tsogo Sun Holdings was buying the properties via its Tsogo Sun Gaming unit.

Tsogo Sun Holdings, which owns and operates casinos and hotel resorts across southern Africa, is owned by Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) and brewing giant SABMiller (SAB). The transaction is expected to be completed by the first half of next year.

Century Casinos Africa also owns and operates the Caledon Hotel, Spa and Casino near Cape Town, as well as 60 per cent of Century Casino Newcastle in Newcastle. - Additional reporting by I-Net Bridge

Source: The Herald