The JSE-listed company in its latest trading update did not reveal reasons for this slowing down in growth. But it said casino profits were up 3 percent.

The entertainment firm said the group’s Resorts and Hotels division had a brilliant quarter which was boosted by Easter celebrations which fell in March this year.

Occupancies at 60 percent surged 2 percent at an average daily rate of R1 425 ($157), which represents a 13 percent increase from last year.

“Sun City, Wild Coast, Table Bay, Federal Palace and Zambia all had an exceptional quarter with revenues up 17 percent, 29 percent, 25 percent, 41 percent and 23 percent respectively,” Sun International said.

According to Sun International, the group’s new Maslow Hotel was launched profitably and is well-set on attaining its fair share of the Sandton market.

It is understood that Maslo Hotel has now been rated by TripAdvisor as the number two hotel in Sandton, North of Johannesburg.

The group experienced strong growth in room’s income as the company continued to pay attention on cost management which resulted in increased EBITDA margin by 0.6 percent to 28.6 percent.

The post Sun International’s Casino Profits Surge 3% appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Over the last 12 months, the company has become one of the largest music aggregators in the African continent, having collaborated with over 70 partners including local and international content providers/copyright bodies/local artists and production houses in the region.

According to the company, “operators in Africa have seen more than fourfold increase in their music services penetration and subscriber base, multi fold increase in their music revenues, using Mahindra Comviva’s digital services.”

Currently Mahindra Comviva owns music rights for 35,000 music assets spanning multiple popular genres including Hip Hop, Pop, Inspirational, Rumba, Hip Life, Football Chants, Gospel, Jazz, Rock, Reggae and Retro in 30 plus languages.

Commenting on its managed music services success in the continent, Atul Madan, Head of Digital Services, Mahindra Comviva said: “We have focused on expanding the operator’s digital music and infotainment ecosystem by bringing local content application and partners in addition to recognized international labels.”

Recently, the company launched its music and content recommendation engine, which enables operators to maximize VAS sales by matching music and content to customer preferences in real-time. The ability to cater to an audience has helped operators record a 50 percent growth in sales.

According to a recent report, demand for content based services grew by 18 percent in 2012 and the global mobile entertainment market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.61 percent between 2013-2015.

Leading operator groups in Africa have outsourced management of their music services portfolio to Mahindra Comviva. On an average, music services in Africa contribute 40 percent to operators’ downloadable content revenues.

To cater to fast evolving trends and sustain consumer engagement, the company is constantly introducing service features like Karaoke, user generated music content and social RBT.

The post Mahindra Comviva Evolves Mobile Music Ecosystem In Africa appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Naspers, which owns just over a third of China’s largest online gaming and social networking company, surged 2.1 percent to R595.34 during Wednesday trade, according to the new agency.

The share made gains after Tencent published quarterly results showing a 36.5 percent leap from a year ago on strong sales of online games.

According to Reuters, Tencent will invest in its popular Weixin mobile chatting application to attract more overseas users.

“Weixin, called WeChat in English-speaking markets, already has more than 300 million users,” Tencent said in a statement. “WeChat was also recently launched to the South African market.”

Tencent also planned to fit in more tasks such as games and content apps into Weixin and increase marketing and advertising outside China.

Reuters reported that revenue from internet-value-added services was 8.5 billion yuan. It contributed 70 percent to total revenue.

Revenue from e-commerce deals leapt 48 percent from the previous quarter to 1.7 billion yuan.

The post Naspers Shares Gain 2% On Tencent’s Impressive Quarterly Results appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Listed are top ten live tweets from the event’s harshtag.

“@EG_GlobalMkts 350+ international business leaders including 70+ media. #Nigeriasummit depicts a truly global conversation in Lagos.”

“@KathleenNdongmo Over the next 15 years cities like Lagos are going to create 50% of the world’s economy ~Robert Neuwirth #Nigeriasummit”

“KathleenNdongmo Neuwirth proposes that govts find effective ways of working with the informal sector rather than put them out of business #Nigeriasummit”

“@cosanna There are positives in banning hawkers, okadas, street markets but we’re talking about job losses in millions! -R. Neuwirth #Nigeriasummit”

“@cosanna Even big companies lose with street trading bans – UAC can’t sell Gala, telecoms struggle with recharge card. – R. Neuwirth #Nigeriasummit”

“@sankara1111 “Not everyone who writes a bizplan is an entrepreneur (Know your limitations, don’t give up, sell your idea)” – Osibodu #Nigeriasummit”

“@sankara1111 Advice from creator of Inye-tablet. “Recruit foreigner to pitch your biz to local investors, if not you won’t be listened to #Nigeriasummit”

“@KathleenNdongmo Oswald Boateng says we don’t quite understand marketing & creating value of goods & services in Africa & it’s not gov’ts job #NigeriaSummit”

“@GbengaGOLD Nigeria has set a target to be one of the top 20 economies in the world. However, our forecast puts it at 33rd – Robert #Nigeriasummit”

“@KathleenNdongmo $2138 – if you have access to this amount of money you are one of the world’s 50% wealthiest individuals. UN statistic #NigeriaSummit”

The post Top 10 Tweets Of The Economist Nigeria Summit 2013 appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

This is in an effort to develop a multi-channel plan aimed at boosting Remgro’s attractiveness across a number of platforms and improve chances of new revenue streams.

Remgro holds a 31.6 percent stake in Sabido, whose media interests include South Africa’s only private free-to-air television channel, e.tv, its sister news service, eNews Channel Africa (eNCA), Gauteng-based radio station and Yfm, according to BusinessTech..

Sabido’s contribution to Remgro’s headline earnings lifted to R78 million ($8.3 million) in the six months to December from R72 million in the previous reporting period.

“Despite aggressive growth in pay television, which is impacting on audience share for free-to-air services, e.tv has managed to hold its own against the increasing competition,” Remgro said in a statement.

All Media Products Survey (AMPS) figures for June 2012 showed a 2.6 percent growth for e.tv, ahead of the industry’s 1.2 percent growth, taking its reach to 16.5 million viewers.

The post Remgro To Launch Online News Services To Improve Competitiveness appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

It is understood that this merger would set the scene for the consolidation of Russia’s internet market.

Financial Times reported that in terms of the transaction, Naspers’ Slando.ru and OLX.ru would be incorporated into the Avito brand.

This deal, according to the respected financial daily, would make what the proprietors believe would be the world’s third biggest classified website after Craigslist.org of the US and 58.com of China.

The unified group is projected to be the fifth most admired Russian website, with more than 100 million page views a day.

According to the Financial Times, Naspers would be investing $50 million in cash into Avito, presenting it with a 18.6 per cent stake in the new group.

The site’s other investors include Swedish investment funds Kinnevik Investments and Vostok Nafta, as well as Northzone Ventures, an early investor in Spotify, the online music streaming site, the Financial Times reported.

Beyond the deal, Avito would own a 25 percent share of the Russian classified market in terms of traffic and 15 percent share in terms of revenue, the newspaper reported.

The post Naspers Approves $570m Merger Of Internet Classified Sites appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Commenting on the development, Adi Nduka-Agwu, Head of Business Development for iROKO Partners, said: “The 2go platform has galvanised the biggest mobile messenger networking user base in Africa in an extremely short space of time, so it was only a matter of time before we were going to work with them.”

We are bringing Nigerian music to the millions with this partnership and we’re thrilled to be working with 2go to connect with new, young and music-obsessed audiences across continental Africa,” she added.

In addition to instant search, easy sharing and free music downloads on the new mobi site, 2go’s users will have exclusive music industry news updates delivered directly to their handsets to them every day, courtesy of iROKING.

iROKING is West Africa’s number one music distribution platform, with over 35,0000 tracks from 400+ artists. The company also manages the YouTube channels of over 80 artists, delivering 15 million video views on average a month, with over 130,000,000 views across its pages.

2go has more than 9 million users in Nigeria and is one of Africa’s largest mobile social networks, enabling users to meet new people and message each other for free. The application runs on hundreds of mobile phone models giving users a fast chat interface without the cost.

The post iROKING Brings Free Nigerian Music Downloads To 2go Community appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

According to the South African Press Association (Sapa), TMG on Friday last week told the task team about their immediate pull out of the hearings.

Sapa reported on Monday that TMG, formerly Avusa Media, was the second company of the major four South African media companies to pull out of these hearings. These companies include Caxton, Naspers, TMG and Independent News & Media.

Caxton was another media company which pulled out of the hearings last month. Caxton and TMG have attributed the pull out to the on-going investigation by the Competition Commission into anti-competitive behaviour in print and digital media.

The hearings were organised by the Print and Digital Media Transformation Task Team. The Print and Digital Media SA was formerly known as Print Media SA.

These meetings would have been held on Thursday and Friday this week, according to Sapa. But the task team insisted that inquiries would continue this week on Wednesday and part of Thursday.

The hearings would involve the government, the ANC, Sector Education and Training Authorities, the SA Audience Research Foundation and advertisers.

Sapa reported that the media group Caxton announced it had pulled out in January. This was also linked to the investigation by the Competition Commission. The commission is probing suspected anti-competitive behaviour by Caxton, Naspers, Times Media, and the Independent News & Media.

The four media houses are accused of allegedly sharing markets and information. These companies were reportedly informed about the hearings in December last year.

The task team is investigating ownership, management, employment equity, skills development, and the low level of black ownership in many large media groups.

The main problem with South Africa’s print and digital media is that it is populated by only white journalists. Media owners prefer to hire only junior black journalists and not black senior reporters. Senior black journalists are either unemployed or are found in other industries.

“I think this has got to be investigated because it perpetrates all sorts of stereotypes about black people,” a Johannesburg-based analyst, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, told Ventures Online.

“Secondly, this allows the media and digital media to push its well-known liberal agenda, which is certainly not great for the country which recently came out of racial politics.”

The post South Africa’s Times Media Boycotts Transformation Public Hearings appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

According to a statement released by INM, detailed heads of terms had been drawn up with the Sekunjalo Independent Media Consortium – a leading black investment groups in South Africa with more than 70 private and public companies in Africa.

“The disposal of the South African business will require both INM shareholder approval and Competition Commission approval in South Africa.”

It added, “The transaction is subject to finalisation of further approvals and final agreement being signed by both parties. Pending a further announcement, the detail of the heads of terms shall remain confidential.”

The Irish media group had earlier revealed plan to sell its South African business in July 2012. It had sold its British title The Independent, as well as interests in India and closing money-losing newspapers in Ireland to pay off its $559.7 million debts.

Confirming the deal, Survé, the leader of the Sekunjalo Consortium said “I am delighted that I have the opportunity to bring these newspapers, this national asset, back to South Africa. I am bringing Independent back home.”

He believes the ailing print media could be transformed into a growth industry with particular opportunities in vernacular newspapers and digital convergence.

According to Business Report, an INM-owned company, INM SA does not have an editorial charter protecting editorial independence. Instead editorial independence is governed by the letters of appointment of the individual editors of group titles, which states they have full responsibility for the editorial and commercial content of the newspapers. Editors also sign an internal code of practice.

Survé intends to deal with questions of editorial independence by setting up an independent advisory board that would consult with management, editors, and staff and outside the business to define editorial charters.

He said he was open to approaches from the group’s staff, which had already extensively discussed establishing a staff trust which could take a share of the company to offer incentives to employees and involve them in decisions around developing the company.

“We must reflect the views of everybody and newspapers must support democracy and the growth of the economy. You must have many divergent views in a newspaper.”

Survé however says, his link to South Africa ruling party, ANC will not tamper with his strong personal commitment to editorial independence.

“I am a businessman and I have run Sekunjalo with integrity,” Survé said.

INM has been a major player in the South African media with its newspaper titles which include, Business Report,The Star, the Pretoria News, Cape Argus, Cape Times, Daily Voice, Daily News, The Mercury, Saturday Star and Sunday Independent and the Zulu-language paper, Isolezwe.

The post Independent News & Media To Sell South Africa Unit For $219m appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

His reps, in a statement, confirmed that “Banky (as he is popularly called) and Nollywood star, Kate Henshaw will be the faces of Samsung Electronics West Africa Mobile Division. They will work together to raise awareness for Samsung mobile products, and ultimately contribute to making Samsung phones the preferred brand in the West Africa sub-region.”

Kate Henshaw had also been a brand ambassador to telecom giant Globacom, and food seasoning product, Onga.

Samsung Electronics West Africa MD, Brovo Kim said: “The Samsung brand stands for qualities of innovation, change, discovery, self-expression and excellence in performance and these very same qualities are epitomised by Banky W. We are indeed very proud and privileged to have him as our Brand Ambassador.”

Banky W also expressed his gratitude: “This is my second run as a Samsung brand ambassador and I’m grateful for the opportunity.”

In 2011, Banky W and a female Nigerian rapper-cum-fashion designer Sasha closed a 1-year endorsement deal with Samsung. The deal included recording a theme song, appearances on Samsung Mobile functions and campaign ads.

Banky W had also been a brand ambassador for Etisalat and Coca Cola. According to a reliable source, he pocketed 10 million naira ($64,000) from the Etisalat deal.

According to Nigerian Entertainment Today, Banky W is the face of a recently launched promo campaign for an upcoming product ‘Samsung Galaxy Grand‘.

The endorsement of Nigerian celebrities is part of the aggressive push by tech giant Samsung to penetrate the African market. By a large margin, the company dominates the African market more than its California-based arch-rival Apple.

Samsung announced it would begin including African content – language, music, pictures, etc – in its products this year.

The post Nigerian Celebrities Earn $890,000 In Samsung Endorsement Deal appeared first on Ventures Africa | .