Johannesburg – Gaming and hotel group Tsogo Sun Holdings on Tuesday announced the commencement of expansion plans for its Silverstar‚ Gold Reef City and Montecasino operations in Gauteng following approval by the Gauteng Gambling Board.
The news sent the stock up more than 8% to multi-year highs.
In terms of various applications approved by the gambling board‚ Tsogo Sun will spend R150m on charitable or social infrastructural developments in Gauteng‚ which will be selected and administered by the same board.
In addition‚ a minimum of R750m will be spent on the expansion and redevelopment of the Silverstar casino and the refurbishment and expansion of the Gold Reef City casino and Theme Park.
These developments are expected to be completed within the next two years and will result in at least 400 new permanent job opportunities at the units‚ excluding outsourced operations such as tenanted restaurants and support services which will create over 4 000 construction jobs during the development period.
In cognisance of this capital commitment and the significant
additional investments already made at Montecasino of over R1bn between 2007
and 2010‚ the Gauteng board has approved an overall increase of 1 500 gaming
positions across the three casinos to be rolled out in the medium term‚ which
should address any capacity issues in these markets for a number of years to
come.