Zimbabwe’s African Sun will sell its Holiday Inn portfolio for about $11mn to fund full ownership of the Victoria Falls Hotel, it said on August 20.
The hospitality group is buying out Meikles Hospitality’s 50% interest in The Victoria Falls Hotel Partnership, ending a joint operation that has run since 1998, and will fund an $11mn refurbishment of the property from the same disposal.
The board approved the sale of the Holiday Inn hotels in Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare as part of a wider portfolio restructuring, the company said. It is the second disposal this year, after Caribbea Bay Resort on Lake Kariba was sold with effect from March 1.
African Sun and Meikles have signed a cessation agreement subject to final regulatory approvals, which will hand African Sun the whole of the partnership.
Further refurbishment of The Victoria Falls Hotel will be funded entirely by African Sun, with the consent of landlord Emerged Railways Properties. The 161-room Edwardian property opened in 1904, sits inside Victoria Falls National Park and remains owned by the National Railways of Zimbabwe.
The Holiday Inn sales require sign-off from InterContinental Hotels Group as brand franchisor, from the NRZ Contributory Pension Fund, which owns the Harare and Bulawayo properties, and from the Competition and Tariff Commission.
African Sun expects to take full management and operational control of the Victoria Falls Hotel in September. Handover of the Holiday Inn properties is targeted for January 1, 2027.
The group said the restructuring is intended to concentrate resources on core tourism assets and deepen its position in Victoria Falls, the country’s principal international leisure destination. Exiting the three city hotels leaves the portfolio weighted towards resort and destination properties, including Elephant Hills Resort, Hwange Safari Lodge and Troutbeck Resort.