Sun International declares special dividend, boosting group’s full-year payout

Sandton-headquartered gaming and hotels group Sun International is paying out a special dividend totalling R256 million to shareholders for its full-year to the end of December 2025.

The group announced the move on Monday in releasing its latest financial results. It declared a final cash ordinary dividend of 252 cents per share (cps), bringing its total ordinary dividend for the full year to 424cps (2024: 398 cps) – and increase 6.5%.

Read:
Stricter gambling advertising controls are on their way
Sun International scoops SA Corporate’s Nomzamo Radebe

With the special dividends, the group’s total dividend payouts for the second half of its 2025 financial year will come in at R900 million. Its final gross cash ordinary dividend of 252cps totals R644 million.

Other financial and operational highlights :

ADVERTISEMENT

CONTINUE READING BELOW

Group income up 7.1% to R12.9 billion, excluding the Table Bay Hotel (‘TBH’ – which was closed for several months for a R1 billion overhaul by owners the V&A Waterfront).
Group income, including TBH, up 3.2% to 13 billion.
Adjusted headline earnings per share up 6.4%, from 531 cps to 565 cps.
Robust balance sheet: Net debt to adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) of 1.5x.
Strengthened executive team through key senior appointments.
Sunbet saw the fourth consecutive year of continuing strong income and growth across all key metrics.
Continuing market share gains across its land-based casino portfolio. Sun International land-based casino market share increased by 0.6% to 46.0%, with land-based casinos outperforming the broader market decline.
Resorts and hotels improvement, excluding TBH: Food and beverage and rooms revenues grew 6.9% for FY2025.

Commenting on the financial performance, Sun International CEO Ulrik Bengtsson said that 2025 was “a transition year” during which the group made progress towards realising its ambition to become a digitally-led, market leading, omnichannel gaming company of scale.

“During H2, we assessed the company’s potential and operational capabilities and agreed a five-year value creation plan with the board. This plan will be outlined at our Capital Markets Day event later today [Monday],” he said in the results release on the JSE.

“In H2, Sun International delivered a solid performance broadly in line with growth achieved in the first half of 2025 (H1),” said Bengtsson.

“Sunbet saw robust growth, with an increase in H2 income of 79.8% compared to 2024. Active player days increased by more than 70%, demonstrating that underlying customer activity is supporting this growth momentum.

ADVERTISEMENT:

CONTINUE READING BELOW

“Our 2025 land-based casino performance was significantly ahead of the market as a result of optimisation initiatives implemented on tables and slots,” he added.

However, Bengtsson noted that Sun International’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) on a comparable basis declined 2.6%. Nevertheless, he said that it still outperformed the rest of the market (which fell by 6.3%), resulting in a 0.6% increase in market share to 46%.

“In particular, we saw a positive performance in the last quarter of the year where we grew GGR by 4%, our highest growth rate since Q2 2023 against a continued market decline,” he pointed out.

Bengtsson said the group is “also starting to see a return” on its investment at Sun City, with the resort having a good H2, benefiting from “a material uplift in gaming and hospitality revenues compared to H1”.

#Sun #International #declares #special #dividend #boosting #groups #fullyear #payout