Durban - The Durban International Convention Centre (ICC) grew the number of events it hosted by 14 percent to 397 last year.
Centre chief executive Lindiwe Rakharebe said achieving this growth in a sluggish economy was very encouraging.
“We managed to grow profits and the number of events we hosted in 2016 by ensuring that we give our clients the best possible service. Also there were potential clients that turned us down some few years back and we went back to them to find out if they could consider doing business with us again,” said Rakharebe.
The ICC not only grew its profits last year, but also received a clean, unqualified audit from the auditor-general for a third consecutive year.
The centre generated revenue of R161 million from R4.7 million the previous year. The company also maintained a net profit percentage of more than 20 percent and showed a 4.7 percent year-on-year growth in profits to R33 million, up from R31.5 million in 2015.
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Rakharebe was upbeat about the year ahead as the centre will host a list of big events in 2017 such as the World Economic Forum Africa in May and the Indaba Travel and Tourism Show, also in May.
The centre will host five more big events during the course of the year.
During the year cash flows from operating activities increased to R22.3 million from R17.3 million in 2015, while cash/investment balances grew by 9.97 percent to R233.8 million up from R212.6 million. Net assets grew from R166.1 million to R199.1 million during the year.
The Durban ICC generated a total of 1.2 million delegate and visitor days, which resulted in a total contribution of R4.3 billion to South Africa’s gross domestic product.