Iconic South African resort and casino under serious pressure

Sun City, one of South Africa’s most well-known resorts, is under severe pressure as the country’s hospitality industry has yet to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sun City’s parent company, Sun International, hopes the resort’s ongoing refurbishment, set to be completed by the end of 2025, will give the hospitality giant the boost it needs to offset these hits.

Sun City was opened in 1979 by business magnate Sol Kerzner, the man behind many of South Africa’s most well-known hotels and resorts.

Born in Johannesburg in 1935, Kerzner has exposure to the hospitality industry from a young age through his family’s chain of kosher hotels.

After graduating, Kerzner took over the family business and soon started to buy up hotels and resorts across the country.

By 1969, he had established the chain of Southern Sun Hotels in partnership with South African Breweries, which operated 30 luxury hotels with more than 7,000 rooms by 1983. 

Following these successes, Kerzner saw the potential in developing his own resort in a remote area near Pilanesberg National Park – an ambitious project known as Sun City.

The resort was developed over ten years, making it the most ambitious resort project in South Africa at the time.

Kerzner built four hotels, a man-made lake, two Gary Player-designed championship golf courses, and an entertainment centre with an indoor 6,000-seat multi-purpose arena

These ambitious plans paid off, as Sun City’s 1979 opening was a bombshell. Frank Sinatra headlined the extravagant launch, and the resort quickly became a playground for the rich and famous. 

Today, Sun City is still one of the country’s most well-known and popular resorts, but the hospitality giant has come under severe pressure in recent years, affecting its finances.

Sun International hopes that ongoing refurbishments at the resort will turn this around.

Sun City strained

Sun International released its results for the six months through June 2025 – the first half of its 2025 financial year – on Monday, 8 September.

These results showed that the company’s most well-known resort, Sun City, experienced strong revenue growth of 7.6%, going from R904 million to R973 million.

However, Sun City’s operating profit decreased 28% from R69 million to R50 million for the six-month period.

This comes as Sun City is undergoing refurbishment to enhance the resort’s facilities. These refurbishments, set to cost around R350 million, are a three-year process that started in 2024.

The refurbishment commenced with Sun City Hotel rooms, which are due to be completed before the end of the year, and public areas are set to be completed in the first half of 2026. The Sun Vacation Club Reserve refurbishment will also be completed in April 2026.

Sun International explained that the refurbishments are aimed at enhancing the hotel’s facilities and guest experience. This, the company believes, will allow Sun City to improve its growth in room rates.

Like the rest of South Africa’s hospitality industry, Sun City took a hard hit during the Covid-19 pandemic as lockdown regulations restricted tourist travel.

Sun City relies on both local tourists and international travellers, both of whom were limited in their travel during the pandemic.

This saw Sun City experience an extended period of financial losses since 2020. In the first half of the 2020 financial year, the resort reported revenue of only R336 million.

At the same time, Sun City was burning through cash as it reported an operating loss of R207 million.

Since then, Sun City’s revenue has bounced back from the 2020 low point. However, the resort continues to struggle profitability-wise, reporting a mere 5% operating profit margin for the latest interim period.

Sun City’s results between 2020 and 2025 can be seen in the graphs below, courtesy of Daily Investor analyst Drikus Greyling.