Johannesburg - Grand Parade Investments Ltd. rose to a record after Sun International Ltd., South Africa’s second- biggest leisure company, said it’s in talks to buy a stake in the competitor’s slot-machine unit.
Grand Parade jumped as much as 4 percent to 5.20 rand, the highest intraday price since the company’s June 2008 initial public offering, and was trading up 0.8 percent at 5.04 rand as of 10:12 a.m. in Johannesburg, valuing the company at 2.37 billion rand ($223 million).
Sun International is seeking a “material interest” in Grand Parade’s GPI Slots, which owns and runs limited-payout machines, the companies said in a joint statement today.
First-half profit at Johannesburg-based Sun International dropped 21 percent to 302 million rand as gambling revenue stagnated and the cost of eliminating jobs rose, it said February 24.
Cape Town-based Grand Parade, which also has property and restaurant assets, opened the first Burger King Worldwide Inc. franchise in South Africa in 2013 and introduced the brand’s first outlets in Johannesburg this year. - Bloomberg News