How much money the Sandton powerhouse in South Africa’s biggest hotel group makes

Southern Sun’s Sandton Consortium is shooting the lights out, having gone from struggling post-pandemic to now seeing a notable surge in income to R801 million.

The Sandton Consortium’s strong performance in the 2026 financial year also helped Southern Sun offset some of the challenges in its overseas operations, which have been impacted by the Middle East war.

Southern Sun released its results for the year through March 2026, which revealed a strong overall performance.

The company’s income rose by 9% to R7.18 billion, while its profit for the year shot up by 22% to R1.25 billion. The group’s Ebitdar grew by 12% to R2.4 billion.

Southern Sun’s basic earnings per share rose by 21% to 92.2 cents per share, while its adjusted headline earnings per share increased by 19% to 90.1 cents.

This was largely driven by the outperformance of the Sandton Consortium, which includes the Sandton Sun, Sandton Towers, Garden Court Sandton City, and management fee income from the Sandton Convention Centre.

This consortium saw a 21% increase in income to R801 million, while its Ebitdar rose to R276 million, up 30.81%.

The company explained that this growth was underpinned by strong conferencing demand, including the G20 and B20 conferences, which were hosted in Sandton in 2025.

This segment also benefited from the reopening of the Sandton Towers, which were refurbished in 2025.

Therefore, some of the pain the company took from this refurbishment in 2025, when growth slightly flattened due to the Towers’ closure, seemingly paid off in the 2026 financial year.

The strong performance of the Sandton Consortium also helped to offset some of the challenges Southern Sun is experiencing in its offshore portfolio.

For the 2026 financial year, Southern Sun’s offshore income declined by 4% to R377 million, with Ebitdar down 10% to R46 million.

This is partially attributable to a stronger rand, which drove a 15% decline in offshore average room rates.

In addition, some of the company’s offshore operations came under pressure in March 2026, following the outbreak of the Iran war at the end of February.

The conflict has reduced airlift into the Seychelles, which interrupted the recovery momentum of Southern Sun’s refurbished Paradise Sun hotel.

In general, the Middle East war has also driven up global oil prices, placing upward pressure on food and travel costs.

Aside from the war, Southern Sun’s offshore portfolio also struggled due to ongoing challenges in Mozambique, which faced fuel and US dollar shortages, and Tanzania, which is experiencing political unrest.

Despite these headwinds, Southern Sun delivered a strong 2026 financial year, including a major milestone: transitioning to a net cash position and eliminating its foreign exchange debt exposure.

The group generated strong free cash flow of R909 million in 2026, ensuring it ended the financial year with a net cash position of R86 million.

This marks a notable turnaround from the net debt position of R266 million Southern Sun found itself in last year.

The group also settled its reaming $24.7 million loan balance, thereby successfully eliminating its foreign exchange debt exposure.

This has been one of the company’s key objectives since its separate listing in June 2019.

Based on its strong performance in the 2026 financial year, Southern Sun declared a final dividend of 30 cents per share.