October 9, 2003

By Margie Inggs

Durban - Thabo Moloko, the chief executive of Akani Leisure Investment Group, said deals worth R92 million were in the pipeline for Akani Hotels.

On Tuesday the Three Cities Hospitality Group and the black empowerment group formed a joint venture hospitality management firm called Akani Hotels.

The joint venture company would focus on three- and four-star resorts, game lodges and city hotels, the parties said yesterday.

Moloko of the Akani Leisure Investment Group, which manages casinos in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, said the deal would expand the diversified empowerment group's focus and activities to the area of hotel management.

"The structure of the deal is also good for empowerment since it establishes a new company that is majority owned by previously disadvantaged South Africans."

"Basically, the Akani Leisure Investment Group will hold 60 percent of Akani Hotels and Three Cities the balance," he said.
 

Alan Vels, the managing director of Three Cities, said the hospitality group would provide management and marketing services as part of the deal.

This includes its central reservation service, information technology support, group purchasing, training, domestic and international marketing, and its financial management skills.

The deal would give the empowerment hospitality management company instant access to a reliable hospitality management infrastructure that would help grow its tourism business.

"But it's also a great deal for Three Cities that will allow us to develop another brand with hotels not featured in our portfolio. It will provide opportunities within South Africa and outside the country that we have not been in a position to access in the past.

"It will also provide an opportunity to increase our domestic and international marketing ability and to place trainees from historically disadvantaged backgrounds in a greater number of properties. Ultimately, it's an opportunity to grow the tourism base throughout Africa".

Moloko said Akani Hotels had been awarded the tender for tourism development in the Double Drift Reserve by the Eastern Cape Tourism Board.