African Sun, the largest hotel firm in Zimbabwe, plans to delist from the country's Victoria Falls Stock Exchange.
African Sun's board approved the move to take the company private, according to a Feb. 12 news release. African Sun shareholders will vote on the proposal during a March 4 meeting. The news release added the deal will continue the firm’s “ongoing strategic review and value-unlocking initiatives, aimed at enhancing operational flexibility and supporting the company’s long-term strategic objectives.”
The Harare, Zimbabwe-based company is also in negotiations to sell its 83-room Caribbea Beach Resort to Zimbabwe’s state-owned Public Service Pension Fund, which African Sun first hinted at in November. That same month, PSPF acquired African Sun's 243-room Monomotapa Hotel and adjacent parking lot for $18 million, according to New Zimbabwe.
African Sun has been in selling mode of late as it concentrates its hotel portfolio on its core assets.
In February 2025, African Sun sold its 56-room Great Zimbabwe Hotel, along with its management division, Laclede Investments, for $4.2 million to domestic family office Mewame, according to Zimbabwean newspaper The Herald.
African Sun, founded in 1971, still owns and operates seven hotels in Zimbabwe — 276-room Elephant Hills Resort & Conference Center; 150-room Holiday Inn Bulawayo; 201-room Holiday Inn Harare; 96-room Holiday Inn Mutare; 96-room Hwange Safari Lodge; 70-room Troutbeck Resort, which opened in 1947, and 149-room Victoria Falls Hotel, which opened in 1904.
Regarded as its crown jewel, the Victoria Falls Hotel is nicknamed “The Grand Old Lady of the Falls” and is adjacent to the eponymously named waterfall.
In its latest full-year earnings results for the year ending June 30, 2025, African Sun's revenue reached $23.5 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $3.41 million, a 61% increase over the same period in 2024. During an earnings presentation, African Sun chairman Lloyd Mhishi said he was optimistic about Zimbabwe’s tourism future.
“We anticipate a marked increase in international travel volumes, and a rebound in conference and business tourism driven by strengthened domestic demand, spurred by the launch of the [Zimbabwe’s] Tourism & Hospitality Industry Policy (2025–2030), supported by a more favorable regulatory landscape and the continued rollout of the liberalized ZWG pricing framework.”
“ZWG,” or “ZiG,” is Zimbabwe Gold, the country’s official currency, which started in April 2024. It replaced the Zimbabwean dollar, a currency that suffered from continued depreciation and itself only began in June 2019.
In January, Finance in Africa said the official inflation rate in Zimbabwe is 4.1%, the “lowest inflation rate since 1997, and the fastest pace of disinflation in nearly six years.”
The 4.1% rate is approximately a 61% fall year over year and approximately a 73% fall from the month before, aided by the “gold-backed currency [being] strengthened on the back of record bullion prices,” the news site added.