Coast Entertainment Holdings Limited (CEH) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Coast Entertainment Holdings Limited FY '24 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Dr. Gary Weiss, Chairman of Coast Entertainment Holdings Limited. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for the presentation of the FY '24 full year results for Coast Entertainment Holdings Limited. My name is Gary Weiss, and I'm the Chairman of Coast Entertainment. I'm joined on the call today by our Chief Executive Officer, Greg Yong; and our Chief Financial Officer, Jose de Sacadura. I'll start by providing some preliminary remarks, and then I'll hand over to Jose and Greg to provide some further color. FY '24 has marked another solid year for the group, with some important milestones achieved amid a tough trading environment. The last 12 months have seen a continuation of the challenging economic conditions, which began in the second half of FY '23. High interest rates and persistent inflation have created cost pressures and dampened discretionary spending for many leisure, retail and consumer-facing businesses. For our Theme Parks, this was compounded by the impact of 2 severe storms, which caused significant damage and trading disruption during the peak summer holiday period. Against this backdrop, the group has delivered a resilient performance with visitation to our venues up 14.3% on the prior year. This was driven by a 3.1% increase in ticket sales, with the value of these sales being the highest we have seen since FY '16. Revenue for the year of $87 million was also up 3.8% compared to the previous year, with a notable shift in ticketing mix in FY '24 towards more annual passes. This has seen deferred revenue for the group increased to $12.1 million in June 2024, 12% higher than the prior year. Despite inflationary pressures, we have continued to diligently manage operating and overhead costs. And along with the revenue growth just mentioned, this has led to the Theme Parks business recording an EBITDA profit, excluding specific items, of $7.4 million, an increase of 56.4% over the prior year. Importantly, both Dreamworld and SkyPoint again delivered positive EBITDA contributions, and SkyPoint's revenue and EBITDA performance in the year was its best on record. Pleasingly, these performance strengths have continued into FY '25 with July 2024 visitation, revenue and EBITDA showing strong growth compared to the prior period. At the group level, we have seen a meaningful reduction in corporate costs and the group has delivered its first positive EBITDA result for the continuing business since FY '16. But for the impact of the storms, this result could have been better, and we are working with our insurers to progress the related insurance claims worth $700,000 received in FY '24 and a further $1.6 million of progress payments received so far in FY '25. The on-market share buyback, which commenced in mid-September is continuing with 45.1 million shares bought back to date at a cost of $21.2 million, representing 9.4% of issued capital. Subject to market trading conditions, we anticipate completing the buyback in the first quarter of FY '25. The group remains well capitalized with a solid balance sheet, no debt, cash of $89 million and available tax losses of almost $139 million at 25 June 2024. As I've mentioned before, we see potential upside opportunities in our landholdings and are awaiting a decision from Gold Coast City Council in relation to our preliminary DA application, which has now passed the public consultation phase. With that, I will now hand over to Jose to taking you through the group's financial results.

Thank you, Gary, and good morning to everyone joining us today. On Slide 4, we provide some further detail on the consolidated results for FY '24. As Gary mentioned, the group has delivered a steady performance in the face of some tough trading conditions. Despite the ongoing economic headwinds and severe summer storms, operating revenue for the group was $87 million, up 3.8% on the prior year. This was driven by growth in ticket sales and visitation with the business benefiting from increased promotional activity, as well as the launch of several new attractions during the year. This growth was achieved despite a significant amount of construction activity in the past during the year and the business cycling $2.6 million of revenue arising from Queensland Government COVID similar programs in FY '23. We were particularly encouraged by the second half performance, which saw revenue of $43.5 million match first half revenue, representing an increase of 8.3% on the prior second half. Again, this was despite the storm disruptions and continuing weather, which persisted throughout the second half. Also relevance, as Gary mentioned, is the change in sales mix towards more annual passes. [ Future ] revenue for these passes being recognized over 12 months, we've seen the group's deferred revenue balance grow to $12.1 million at June 2024, an increase of 12% over the prior period. With the increased passholder base also helping drive return visitation and incremental in park spends. EBITDA for the Theme Parks & Attractions business, excluding specific items, was $7.4 million in the year, up 56.4% on prior year due to the high flow-through of increased revenues, given the business' large fixed cost base, as well as the prudent management of operating and overhead expenses. At the group level, corporate costs continue to be an area of focus for management and further progress has been made to reduce the cost base in the year with the group delivering savings of $1.8 million, an improvement of almost 23% despite the high inflation environment. I'll be providing some additional color on this later in the presentation. After corporate costs, the group recorded a consolidated EBITDA loss from its continuing operations of $4.6 million. However, it's important to note that the statutory result was impacted by a number of one-off and noncash specific items, which I'll discuss further on the next slide. And excluding these items, the group achieved a consolidated EBITDA from continuing operations of $1.1 million, up 132% of the previous year and its first positive EBITDA result for the continuing business since FY '16. Net interest income of $5.3 million was also up 18.8% on the prior period, reflecting investments of the group's cash balances at higher interest rates, a small consolation benefit of the current high interest rate environment. The additional gain from discontinued operations of $12.6 million recorded this year reflects the recognition of USD 8.6 million deferred consideration from the sale of Main Event. Overall, the net impact of these items saw the group reported a net profit after tax of $2.6 million for the year compared to $664.7 million in the prior period. Noting, of course, that the FY '23 results included a $682 million one-off gain from the sale of Main Event. Moving now to Slide 5. As indicated earlier, the group's results for the year have been impacted by a number of one-offs and noncash specific items. And here, I'll provide a little more detail regarding these items. Firstly, it's worth reminding everyone again that the prior year results included the gain on sale of Main Event amounting to $682 million. Further details in relation to that gain are disclosed in Note 30 to the annual report. During the current year, the group recognized further deferred consideration relating to this transaction amounting to USD 8.6 million, of which USD 8.1 million was received in FY '24. The remaining portion is expected in late 2024 and is recognized as a receivable in the group's accounts. The group's results have also been impacted by $3.5 million of shareholder class action costs, net of insurance recoveries. As previously disclosed in the half year results presentation, the group settled this matter in February, incurring a one-off cost of approximately $4 million net of associated insurance reimbursements. In relation to the severe summer storms, the group results also reflect write-off of damaged property at Dreamworld and WhiteWater World, as well as $0.9 million of storm-related repair and maintenance expenses. This has been partially offset by $700,000 of insurance proceeds, which are received during the year in relation to the property damage. Our further proceeds are expected in relation to both property damage and business interruption that have not been recognized in the FY '24 accounts as they remain subject to assessment by the group's insurers. The group is actively working with its insurers to progress the associated insurance claims. And I'm pleased to confirm that we received another $1.6 million of progress payments so far in FY '25. And finally, the group's results included $3.2 million of tax expenses for tax losses and deductible temporary differences generated in the year, for which a deferred tax asset has not been recognized. In aggregate, the group now has approximately $139 million of tax losses and almost $51 million of deductible temporary differences, which are not recognized on the balance sheet. As I've previously stated, these are of considerable value to the group as, despite the accounting treatment, they remain available for future use by the group. I'll now hand over to Greg, who will provide a little more color on the performance of the Theme Parks & Attractions business.

Thanks, Jose. Good morning, everyone. I'm very excited today to share with you the progress we've made and the direction that we're heading in here at Coast. Today, I'm going to provide a brief update on the past year, a bit of an overview as to our operating results, and then I'm going to recap on our strategic priorities, and finally, give you an update on some key activities happening across the organization. As you all know, Dreamworld, WhiteWater and SkyPoint are not just properties, they're iconic destinations that have become a part of the fabric of the Gold Coast. And before we dive in, have a look at Slide 6, what a stunning view from the top of SkyPoint climb. It's one of our must-do experiences. But let's get into it. So if we turn over to Slide 7, it's been an incredibly busy year for the group. We've delivered strong results, we've grown revenue, improved EBITDA and elevated guest satisfaction. Now, I won't cover everything on this slide as most of this is going to be detailed later in the presentation. But I want to highlight some initiatives that typically don't make the headlines. Firstly, our success is deeply rooted in our collaboration with local community. We strengthened partnerships with local schools. We've expanded sponsorships for grassroots sports and creative initiatives, and I serve actively as the Director on the Gold Coast Community Fund, a fund that does remarkable work globally. We're also leaders in making our sites more accessible, particularly thanks to operations team led by Michelle Erasmus and Chantel Maclachlan. And they've introduced some initiatives like the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower project, and we're very proud of opening Dreamworld's Calming Cottage, the first-of-its-kind on the Gold Coast. Finally, the Dreamworld Wildlife Foundation continues its vital work in both local and global conservation efforts, especially in tiger conservation, through our partnership with the Zoological Society of London and the WildCats Conservation Alliance. Moving to Slide 8. And FY '24 marked an inflection point really, as we began executing the Product Master Plan that we announced back in November 2022. We've reimagined our kids offerings, starting with an extension of the Ocean Parade precinct, including new attractions like Serpent Slayer, Deep Sea Dodgems and the Seabed Splash water play area. Slide 9 highlights the complete renewal of our Kids World, Kenny and Belinda's Dreamland, with new attractions across the board and particularly in partnership with the Wiggles. And on Slide 10, we showcase the Dreamworld Flyer, which has been a real hit among families, featuring over 100 fountain jets in 3000 lights, adding a new dynamic to the park and especially the Dreamworld Night Markets. And all of these developments were delivered on time and on budget. A significant achievement I can say, in today's challenging construction environment and a real testament to our entire team. We turn to Slide 11 and our financial results. Jose and Gary have already covered much of this, so I'm going to try to focus on adding some context to the numbers. Despite the significant challenges, we saw an increase in revenue. As we've already mentioned, consumers have been feeling the pinch and we dealt with the most difficult situation at Dreamworld with severe weather events and notably Dreamworld being under construction for most of the year. I can't stress enough, though, how proud I am of our entire team's response during the difficult period, particularly in relation to the storm. On the expense side, we're no different to most organizations. We've seen some immense pressure on cost lines throughout our supply chain, but we've continued to find efficiencies and we've held expenses flat despite a 14.3% increase in attendance. All of this, as we've mentioned, has [ culminated ] in a 56% increase in EBITDA and importantly, our second positive EBITDA for the operating business since 2016, and our first positive EBITDA at the group level. And whilst these milestones are significant, I think if you've been following us for a while now, you know that complacency is not in our vocabulary, and we're committed to achieving historical EBITDA levels and we've got a lot of work to do [ until we ] get there. On to Slide 12 and you can see our financial highlights. We saw growth in ticket sales, which are now 40% higher than FY '17, driven largely by our annual pass channel, which is now over 100% up on FY '17. Annual pass business is crucial. It offers us an opportunity to build a meaningful relationship with patrons, leading to higher total revenue and a greater propensity for retention. This has also provided a weather hedge buffering us against adverse conditions like the summer weather events. Per capita has indeed softened over the year due to a few things: Firstly, increased passholder visitation and its implied mathematical pressure on yields; some tactical promotion activity; and some improving international visitation. However, we are very confident that the yield environment is structurally different to what it was back in FY '17. And our focus remains on total revenue whilst maintaining higher per capita spends than pre FY '17 levels. And we have some initiatives which I'm going to speak about later, that are very assistive in this regard. Over to Slide 13. We detailed the impacts of the summer weather events, which significantly affected the second half when we presented earlier this year. Despite this, we've managed a reasonable second half, driven by rigorous cost discipline, improved demand and by implication, improved attendances once we reopened. Again, the annual pass program also played a critical role, allowing us to book revenue despite the January closures. Again, a live example of our weather hedge strategy. And while there is still a significant areas of the park under construction for Rivertown, the new kids area and the Dreamworld Flyer contributed to improve park conditions and guest satisfaction in the second half. As we've already said, the most disappointing thing is what we missed out on due to the extreme weather events. We do know that leading up to the to that point, the trade was very strong. The properties were in fantastic condition right up until that event with product ready to go, and we saw recovery immediately once people started to return to the destination. Moving over to Slide 14. You can see that since 2019, with the notable exception of COVID, the business is moving in the right direction. Ticket sales and revenue were up despite material upside being lost due to those early second half trade impediments. On the international front, attendances remain below historical norms. For competitive reasons, I'm not going to disclose the quantum of that gap other than to say that we're seeing some ongoing recovery. But performance in key markets, in particularly in China, remain well below what we were seeing prior to the pandemic. Everywhere you look, there's pressure on the consumer, and while we note this internally, our mantra is that, we monitor it, but we focus on the micro execution. We don't have a lot of influence over what is happening in the broader economy, but we do have every opportunity to position this business to deal with these conditions, and we must execute flawlessly in order to optimize outcomes. I'll talk more about what we're doing on both the demand side and cost areas in the business in a moment. And again, what is pleasing is, despite all of these conditions that we've outlined, we managed to see an increase in EBITDA of over 56% on the prior year. For July, although the results are unaudited, we saw the continuation of a softer retail environment, with ticket sales finishing in line with last year. But pleasingly, attendance growth has sustained and revenue grew by over 10%, with EBITDA up over 40% year-on-year. This was a combination of a few things: Firstly, the ongoing release of our deferred balance; 2, EBITDA accretive snowy nights events, which are designed to leverage off the investment already sunk into Winterfest; and our sustained demonstration of efficiency, especially in the cooler months where we don't suffer the operating burden of running the water park. Now, whilst we're happy with the early performance, I would hasten to note that this is the first month of the year and it's unreasonable to jump to any conclusions based on these results, despite the fact that we are very pleased with them. Now, turning to Slide 15. And I want to reiterate 4 key elements of our strategy to return to historical earnings. As I've said a lot, first and foremost is safety. Safety and the well-being of our team, our guests and our animals remain our top priority. We've recently implemented third-party audits in all of our ride operations, supplementing our existing internal and regulatory audits. Additionally, we've achieved the highest possible score in aquatic safety, earning the prestigious Platinum award, which places us in the top 10% of all Ellis audited parks globally. The age and the protected life cycle of our fleet remain fundamental to our safety strategy, and our engineers, in concert with our suppliers, are focused on making the best long-term decisions for the good of the organization. We've done a lot in this space, as you've seen, but we have a few legacy attractions left to deal with. Business transformation is another critical focus. We have a bit of a saying here, which is that, costs are certain but revenue is fleeting. I've spoken a lot about the diseconomies of scale that are built into a largely fixed cost business, and we need to ensure that as attendance and revenue grow, our costs remain stable in order to generate operating leverage. With scale, more significant international procurement is back on the table and we expect this to drive down our retail cost of goods significantly over the next 18 months. Leveraging data insights has also become a cornerstone of our strategy, allowing us to make high-quality commercial decisions, and we've introduced state-based dynamic pricing only 2 days ago, first in our market to drive volume during quieter times and optimize yield during peak periods. On the revenue front, we're committed to being brilliant at the basics. Our strategy revolves around ensuring attraction availability, which was at 97% for last year. And that's simply a world-class result and driven without a doubt by our world-class engineering team, as well as a high-quality F&B offer, impeccable property presentation and a comfortable environment all year round, but especially when we're busier. And all of this leads to undisputably high guest scores. Our Product Master Plan is the most significant driver of investment and it is a vital element in the overarching strategy. You've seen the work we've already delivered over the last 12 months, and I'll take you through what we have upcoming shortly. Finally, none of this is possible without execution and we need an experienced, engaged and motivated team. Our key metrics show that we're achieving this, and it's reflected in our outstanding interactions that we provide our visitors. Slide 16 focuses on guest experience. I've talked about the Dreamworld difference, and I've also spoken a little bit about the SkyPoint service that we give in many presentations. Across all of our businesses, the guest experience is an important priority. Despite the disruption caused by extensive capital work last year at Dreamworld and at SkyPoint, we maintain that commitment. Dreamworld and WhiteWater World outperformed competitors in Global Review Index scores, and have done so continually since we started measuring these results. And SkyPoint achieved a remarkable milestone by surpassing a score of 90 for the very first time. Look, we just don't stop obsessing about importance of looking after our guests, anticipating their needs, exceeding their expectations, and creating memorable experiences. And that philosophy is deeply embedded in our culture and it's very difficult to replicate. These high service scores that we've achieved are not just management fluff, but they are the result of meaningful results to make guest-centric decisions throughout the organization. Moving over to Slide 17 and our events and activations. Our event calendar continues to be a key driver of engagement and of revenue. The Dreamworld Food Festival, Winterfest and Happy Halloween have all performed exceptionally well. The Dreamworld Night Market is proving to be a durable and profitable venture and we're excited about its long-term potential. And for those of you that have primary school aged kids, I think you'll all be going through that usual process. It happens every year, late nights and last minute costuming efforts for the book parade at school. And to that end, we are absolutely thrilled to be the official partner nationally of Children's Book Week. Obviously, the young families are crucial to the success of Dreamworld, and I cannot think of a more appropriately aligned partnership than this one. Not only does it provide some exceptional communication opportunities, but we're also pleased to be hosting our official Book Weekend and our Book Weekend After Party tonight. Actually, starting tonight at our Dreamworld Night Markets, where families will get an opportunity to give that costume 1 more run. On Slide 18, you'll see images of the Dreamworld Fun Run, which continues to grow in popularity. This year, we raised over $20,000 for Guide Dogs Queensland and for LIVIN. This event also attracted Commonwealth Games gold medalist Michael Shelley, who chose to participate without any prior engagement from us, which I think shows just how popular this event really is. Slide 19 introduces our reimagined Spring County Fair and we're now calling that Dreamworld's Country Fair. This event taps into the growing popularity of country themed experiences and we believe it will be an absolute hit with families. Events like this are strategically critical. They offer a capital-light way to acquire new sales by bringing fresh, fashionable experiences to market and moreover, to highlight the value of our annual pass, and thereby, providing a compelling reason for guests to stay within our ecosystem. Let's head over to Slide 20 and have a look at Rivertown. Rivertown, with its key attractions, Murrusippi Motors and Jungle Rush, will be transformative for Dreamworld. These attractions are designed to offer intergenerational experiences with rides that are exciting for the entire family. Murrusippi Motors is a reimagined take on vintage cars, which is a bit of a Dreamworld favorite. The ride vehicles are being completely rebuilt and rethemed with 2 vehicles designed for easy wheelchair access. The immersive theming and the innovative track layout make this a standout attraction and we believe it will be a surprise hit. And yes, we are preserving the best part in the kids. The kids do the driving, which is a fun time for everyone involved. Jungle Rush is going to be the most thematic attraction that we've ever built here at Dreamworld. And again, this is a coaster that young kids will be able to ride, but it's all about fun for the entire family. The ride has several world firsts and an incredible story that we can't wait to share as we get closer to opening. And lastly, we're excited to announce that we'll open a new restaurant in this world. Jungle Jane's will be the most themed restaurant in the country and by a long, long way. This will be a sit down restaurant with a menu that is designed to be at a more premium level than our core park offer, but it is still very attainable for all. We've also incorporated plans to dedicate it to international groups, as well as supplement our event business. And I know this is going to be one of the go-to spaces in the Gold Coast to host your unique gala dinner or your corporate team building evening. And as we continue to execute our Product Master Plan, Rivertown will play a crucial role in driving attendance and enhancing the overall guest experience. The ongoing construction is challenging, given all the weather that we've incurred and spoken about at length, but at the end of the day, it'll be well worth it and would reinforce Dreamworld the must place -- must do destination for families in Australia. If we turn to Slide 21, you can see some of the progress of Jungle Rush and the incredible quality of work that our artisans are delivering. And on Slide 22, you can see just how immense the structure is. And lastly, on Slide 23, you can see some of the views of the exterior of the coaster. Moving to Slide 24 and a few other updates. Firstly, at SkyPoint, we've just posted the best year on record, even with international attendance below historical levels. Before Christmas, we completed a comprehensive renewal of the entire business, including renovating our key areas of the venue, modernizing the brand, updating our digital and venue collateral, revamping menus and refreshing the team uniforms. This revitalization has been very well received and we've had a corresponding lift in performance as a result. Just last month, we completed a significant upgrade of our passenger lifts, a project in progress since last year. The new lifts which replace our end-of-life assets feature a state-of-the-art audio-visual show, and pleasingly, they're 20% more energy efficient, thanks to contemporary technology and materials. On our land development works, we are nearing the final stages of the application process. As Gary mentioned, public consultation is now complete, and we anticipate a decision in the coming months, hopefully before our AGM in November. While the time line is ultimately in the hands of council, we remain very confident that if approved, this application will give Coast the opportunity to add significant value to the Northern Gold Coast in the future. On the topic of insurance claims related to the severe weather events of last December and January, I can confirm that management is making progress on both property damage and loss of earnings due to business interruption. We've received some interim repayments, as Jose has outlined, and we expect further compensation, particularly on the BI policy in due course. And turning over to Slide 25. As I prepared this presentation, I've reflected a little bit on our previous communications. And to our dedicated followers, you probably sense a bit of repetition in our messaging. To be frank, I see this as positive and whilst it may seem familiar, it confirms that our thesis has remained consistent since we first shared our plan to restore value and we're seeing traction and momentum in the right direction. The progress is evident. We've broken even in FY '23 and we said to you that when that happened, that was ahead of our internal projections, and we've achieved a year-on-year increase of over 50% in FY '24. Notably, this is the first time since FY '17 that we've reported positive theme park EBITDA after corporate costs. And while we remain focused on executing our strategy, I can assure you that innovation and change are very much alive and well within the organization, but always within our strategic guardrails. We've all seen the reports from the RBA and banks highlighting a slowdown in discretionary spending across the economy. In response, we've taken tactical actions and we've adjusted our offerings to stay competitive in this challenging environment. And while this, along with increasing visitation from annual passholders, has dampened per capita spend in the short-term, our focus on total revenue and fall-through has proven to be the right approach. We believe per capita spending is structurally stronger than in FY '17 and we expect initiatives like dynamic pricing, the onset of all the new product that we have in train, and an improving economic landscape will inevitably return yields to growth. So the hallmarks of our strategy remain. Safety is the most important thing in this organization, and we can understand how significant the erosion of value can be if this isn't prioritized. We have a solid, multifaceted plan to sustainably increase revenue while setting ourselves apart from our competitors. We're executing on what we believe is a substantial opportunity to create incremental value for holders through higher and better use of our landholdings. Our proprietorial culture fosters strong cost discipline, but never at the expense of safety, and we believe this, along with increasing revenue, creates the operating leverage that we need to return to and exceed historical earnings. And whilst parts of our strategy can be imitated, our high-performance culture and our commitment to our guests are very hard to replicate. Finally, I just want to take a moment to recognize our team. They've done an incredible job showing resilience, innovation and dedication over the last 12 months. It's their hard work that gives us the confidence in our strategy and optimism for the future. I'll now hand back to Jose to conclude the presentation.

Thank you, Greg. I'll now provide some detail regarding the group's corporate costs and capital management before opening up the lines to Q&A. On Slide 27, we provide a high-level overview of the group's corporate overheads. As always, this is an ongoing area of focus for the group. And despite inflationary cost pressures, we've been able to achieve meaningful savings during the year. Total corporate cost for FY '24 came in at $6.9 million. However, it's important to note that this includes $0.6 million of nonrecurring and noncash specific items. Excluding these items, the underlying cost base of $6.3 million has improved 23% compared to equivalent costs of $8.1 million reported in FY '23. The $1.8 million in savings realized are largely as a result of a head office restructuring, a 50% reduction in directors' fees, which took effect from August last year, as well as a meaningful reduction in insurance expenses. As the chart shows, despite $1 million in savings in insurance costs in FY '24, these continue to make up over half of the total cost base. The remainder relates to director and employee costs and other largely fixed costs associated with being an ASX listed group. These other costs have also collectively reduced by $0.8 million in a year. It should be noted that the level of corporate cost we are now seeing is the lowest in over a decade, with the exception only of the COVID impacted years FY '20 to '21. But for context, those COVID impact years involve periods of directors and staff taking salary cuts, receipts of government JobKeeper wage subsidies, no executive or staff bonuses, very little domestic and no international travel, and a more favorable insurance pricing environment. Despite the current inflationary challenges and considerable savings already achieved to date, management are continuing to closely manage these costs and look for ways to realize further savings wherever possible. With additional initiatives already in play expected to deliver further savings in FY '25. On Slide 28, we show a summary of the group's liquidity and cash flows for the year. As you can see, the group ended the year with cash deposits of $89 million, a reduction of $52 million compared to 12 months ago. This predominantly reflects $48 million of capital expenditure payments, as well as $18 million of cash returned to investors via the share buyback, partially offset by positive cash flow from operations and deferred consideration received from the sale of Main Event. The capital expenditure payments in the year reflect a combination of both scheduled maintenance CapEx of around $9.5 million and development CapEx of $38.8 million, the bulk of which relates to new rides and attractions, was opened at Dreamworld during the year, as well as ongoing expenditure on the new Rivertown precinct and Jungle Rush family coaster which are currently in development. With respect to the deferred consideration received for the Main Event sale, this represents the bulk of the post-sale proceeds with a residual amount of around USD 0.5 million expected to come through at the end of calendar 2021. Operating cash outflows for the year of $3.5 million represented improvements of $3.2 million compared to the prior year, driven by the improved trading performance of the group and higher annual pass sales for which we received cash upfront. This number would have been positive if not for the shareholder class action settlement of $4 million in a year, as well as the impacts of the damage and trading disruption brought by the summer storms. Nevertheless, when taken together with interest receipts of $6.1 million, the group generated approximately $2.6 million of positive cash flow from its operations, a marked improvement compared to the cash outflows of $3.3 million in the prior year. And finally, turning to Slide 29. As previously mentioned, the group has a solid balance sheet with cash on hand of $89 million, no debt and unencumbered real estate assets. Here, we provide some color regarding some of our capital initiatives and priorities over the short- to medium-term. As I mentioned, the share buyback program is ongoing with 38.7 million shares purchased during FY '24, leaving 441 million shares on issue at the 25 June 2024. This program has continued into FY '25 and subject to market trading conditions. The group anticipates completing the buyback in the first quarter. And I can tell you we've made some good progress to date with another 6.4 million shares purchased so far in FY '25 at a cost of $3.1 million. So cumulatively, this now brings the buyback to $21.2 million, or 94% of the maximum shares which may be bought back under the program. As noted by Greg, group's capital development pipeline is also progressing well with the development of the new Rivertown precinct on track for December opening despite a number of weather delays during the year. We estimate that around $24 million of this project remains to be funded in FY '25. As Greg mentioned, this precinct will now be augmented with a new, highly themed Jungle Jane's restaurant, which we expect to drive incremental F&B and events revenue and will enable us to further capitalize on the returning international markets. As we previously stated, our significant capital program is critical to driving performance back to and beyond historical levels, and we are encouraged by the early signs with attractions opened so far proving very popular with our guests. As we move towards completion of this program, we will continue to evaluate options for some of the older attractions in our fleet and believe it appropriate to retain some provisioning for potential upgrades, be it for safety enhancements or to extend the life of those attractions. Noting the significant outlay still ahead and opportunities which exist to unlock further value in group landholdings, as well as the continuing economic uncertainty which exists, we believe it's important to continue maintaining a strong balance sheet to provide headroom for the group's operating and capital requirements in the near-term, as well as flexibility and financial capability to pursue further earnings growth opportunities which may arise. Notwithstanding what I've just said, we will, of course, continue to review funding priorities, liquidity and options for further capital management initiatives, having regard to the ongoing performance of the group, its capital position and funding requirements, as well as prevailing market conditions. This concludes the part of our presentation, and I will now open up the lines to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Nicholas McGarrigle with Barrenjoey.

Thanks for the comprehensive presentation. One of the key questions I had was around July because it seems that the year has started strongly. There seem to be 5 weekends in the PCP and 4 weekends in this year's July. Have you made any adjustments to that? Or is it normally that kind of implies that maybe the results are a bit stronger given you had less weekends in this year?

Nick, yes, look, you're right. I think even if we take that into consideration the numbers are, and I'm sure Jose can go into a bit more granularity here, but the numbers are still very strong for July. As you've heard us say before, we just don't like looking at 1 month and then thinking that's going to make us the year. There are some very key things that we can point to in terms of the July performance, as I've outlined. First of all, obviously, the deferred revenue balance that we've outlined is still very high. That's a result of good work that we've done in the past, and clearly, the focus for us is continuing the good work to maintain the revenue -- deferred revenue balance going forward. We also can point to very clearly these EBITDA accretive Snowy Nights events, and they did. And I'm not going to go into the detail as to individually what they contributed to EBITDA for July, but they were successful to the point where we will be talking about doing more of those things and leveraging off the investment we put into our core event business through the year with that kind of similar initiative. But again, I think the other big focus for us, and it is an enduring focus, has just been around the significant focus on cost out and visits in the business, and always at the -- without focusing on reducing any of our safety initiatives, which is obviously front of mind. But, Jose, did you want to add anything further to that?

Yes, just 1 point, Nick. We operate a retail reporting calendar, so that means that we have 13 weeks in every quarter. The first month of the quarter is 5 weeks, followed by 2, 4-week months. So, July is always a 5-week month for us. So, in fact, there have been 5 whole weeks, 5 weekends in both the prior July and the current July. So they are like-for-like [ in a perspective ].

Okay. That's helpful to understand. And then, I guess, ticket sales were flat on PCP in July. I don't know if there's anything to draw into that. When do you normally see the bulk of kind of annual pass purchases happen? Is there anything you'd kind of take from that start?

Yes. Look, I don't want to go into too much granularity, Nick, but I think it's appropriate I give you a little. I think when we look at the destination has been struggling a little bit and we see that in certain demographics particularly. What I can say is that, whilst ticket sales were generally flat, some channels performed better than others and particularly for us, the annual pass channel did. That's important for us because, again, the performance that we get out of annual pass is enduring. If we miss a single day ticket sale today, that hurts and we want to get it. But at the end of the day, if we can sell an annual pass, as I've said, ad nauseam now, annual passes are the #1 ticket we want to sell for all sorts of reasons. It's the highest face value ticket that we sell. And there's clearly an opportunity for us through a repeat visitation to garner higher net yields out of annual passholders and otherwise, would offer single-day guests. And I think more importantly as well is that, we've already acquired that customer. So the notion that we've got them with us, the key job to do for us is then to retain them in our ecosystem, and we've got a lot of activity happening here to do just that.

Okay, great. And then, you mentioned public consultation has completed. Was there anything to draw out of that on the land repositioning? Were there any commentaries that would cause you concern?

No, there was 4 objections. I can tell you, and I follow this very close in the Gold Coast, as you would imagine, that development with 4 objections to it is a pretty good day on the Gold Coast, to be frank. Look, 2 of the objections were from local residents. We treat them as seriously as any other objection. I think in both of those cases, I think an appreciation of exactly what we're trying to do here at Dreamworld, particularly wasn't quite understood. I think, in some cases, there was a view that the application was predicated on the notion of closing the theme park. That's not clearly our plan. There are 2 other objections by largely commercial applicants. And I can tell you quite clearly that we reject every element of those objections. We feel incredibly strongly about our application. And to that end, we continue to pursue it. And again, the outline around dates that I've mentioned is our best guess. Gary and I continue to monitor this very closely. We continue to engage with stakeholders at council. Then again, there will always be objections to these kind of things, but we feel extremely strongly about our position, and we don't believe those objections hold any water.

Okay. And then, in terms of ongoing CapEx, can you talk through any early signs on the broadening or change in demographic mix from some of the money that you spent? Or is the bulk of that benefit in terms of broadening age applicability likely to come at the once all the projects are completed?

No, we've already seen some good performance. Again, the second half, and I don't want to talk about weather any more, to be frank, about enough of it. But the second half result was particularly strong, given all of the reasons why it shouldn't have been. And we attribute that to a few different things. But I think one of the things that we attribute it to clearly is that, the Dreamworld flyer and also the Dreamworld kids land, in terms of Kenny and Belinda's Dreamland, have been very well received. Have we seen any particular changes around demo and things like that? Look, you can see, and it's no secret that we are targeting families front and center. We just believe that the breadth of families, wholesome family fun across the board, is a much more effective market for us. We'll always have something for thrill seekers. We already feel that we have a pretty good offer in that regard. So we've been clearly doubling down in that area. And we're seeing that, I suppose when we look at people coming into the park and the groups and the types of visitation we're getting, we're certainly seeing that. Will it change a whole lot with Rivertown? Look, I just think that we're going to get a lot more. Rivertown is largely in a very similar space. To be fair, it probably plays a little bit older. If you think about Dreamland and the Wiggles and things like that, they are kind of younger demographics, where Rivertown is slightly older, but still very much fun for everyone. And as I've said a lot, I think we've done a really great job of Dreamland. But we were really mindful about not overcapitalizing on that job because kids areas funnily enough, kids are fickle, they grow, and they move through these cycles pretty quickly. And so, we want to have a really great, high-quality, professional kids area, but we want to make sure that we invest in areas that are a little bit more durable for the whole family. And so, I think we've done that quite well.

And then maybe just the last one from me around capital management, the buybacks, obviously, and you've got about 6% remaining. Is there any intention to consider kind of a new buyback once that has completed? And then any other kind of comments around the pro forma cash position post the kind of CapEx plan? It's still relatively sizable. Is that just there for flexibility for potential development?

Yes, I might let Jose handle that one first, and I'll add any color if need be.

Yes, Nick. In terms of the buyback, yes, we're continuing with the current buyback and we hope to have that completed within the first quarter. Obviously, subject to market conditions, we are a participant in the market, we don't accept the market. So we are somewhat limited to the amount of volume we can trade or percentage of daily volumes that we can trade in that. But we're optimistic that we'll have that completed. In terms of further buybacks, I think it's a little early to really sort of say on that. We're not ruling anything in or out at this stage. Obviously, we're waiting on the development application outcome from council and that is potentially quite important to us. I think in terms of the residual cash that you refer, at this stage, it's really just to provide us the most headroom for our requirements, but also the most flexibility and financial capacity in terms of possible opportunities that might come, whether it be from land or other stuff coming down the pipeline.

And I think just to build on that from Jose, because I know the question will inevitably follow. On the land front, our focus has been very clearly on let's get the application in. Again, we've talked about land in this organization in different forms for, I think, a decade or more, and I think this is the first time that you can see that we're going through a process and we're at the very end of that process now. Our entire effort has been really around trying to make sure that we put a very high-quality application to council and then make sure that we get it through. And that's exactly what we're doing now. Are we thinking about how to crystalize the value of that land? Look, it's on our minds. It would be unreasonable to suggest that we haven't contemplated the different things that we would like to think about doing in the future. But I just want to assure you that we have no intention, as a management team or as an organization directly, to be going out and crystallizing all of that value on our own. So we don't have any intention to suddenly start trying to build units ourselves or anything to that end. It's really been about for us trying to make sure that we have a favorable planning scheme in place, that we can have optionality to do all sorts of other things of the land at the right time. And again, once we have our approvals through, well, then we can contemplate all the different things that we would like to do with the land. And, obviously, our focus is to make sure that whatever we do is highly contributory and additory to the experience in the [ amenity ] of the Northern Gold Coast. So that's exactly how we're thinking about it.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Brian Han with Morningstar.

On theme park revenue, you mentioned there was increased promotional activity. Did you mean you spent more on marketing than usual? Or did you mean there was a lot of discounting going on?

Yes, more of the latter, Brian. Look, our marketing spend, though, is largely in line year-on-year, if I could put it that way. Our marketing spend, though, we try to obviously sweat the most we can out of it. And there's obviously a fairly significant change in the world happening right now around traditional to new media. And we're obviously right at the front of that, obviously, for all sorts of different reasons, but particularly because of the efficiency that we think that we can gain from it. So it is more the latter in terms of opportunities around promotional activity and discounts where we thought it's appropriate. And I've always said that we reserve the right to do those things where we think it's important. We sat down very clearly as things became a bit difficult in the economy and said, look, what's the most appropriate path forward? And as long as we're very mindful about ring-fencing, coming up with ways to be the most efficient around that, and doing it for all the right reasons at the right times, without, particularly diluting a headline price, well, then we'll take that opportunity where we see it making sense. And I think the key thing that I wanted to make sure is very clear is that, we still believe very strongly that structurally, our yield situation is well ahead of where we were in FY '17. And I only see upside in that for a few different reasons. I think the first thing is that, this economy situation is what it is now. And we've said for an ongoing time now, that we see it as episodic. It's not forever. And at that point in time, and with the new product coming on, we just see an opportunity for us to continue to increase price, because I think we're providing commensurate value to guests. And I think that's fair and reasonable. So there's things like that. And there's also some other initiatives that I've called out around, particularly dynamic pricing, as well as some other ideas that we're working on here that we think are all very additive to yield in the long-term.

Greg, do you measure Dreamworld's performance versus Village Roadshow's Theme Parks in terms of visitors and guest experience? And if so, how was that relative performance in the last 6 months?

Yes. Look, Brian, to be frank with you, I worry more about us than I worry about Village Roadshow. But as you can imagine, we keep a bit of an eye on what happens over there. Let me give that answer to you in a few different ways. Look, first of all, we're publicly listed, so we share a lot more, I think, than Village necessarily are required to. But we do keep an eye on their performance as much as we can. You can imagine that we would look at all the usual anecdotal pieces of insights that we can gain from car park counts, from intelligence in the market, and we have a reasonable view as to all that. But to be frank with you, I wouldn't suggest that, that is concrete, but we believe that we're doing a good job in terms of share in that regard. And I think absolutely, we very much track our performance from a customer perspective to Village Roadshow. And as I outlined on Slide 16, we've been monitoring that very closely using the Global Review Index. And for the third consecutive year, our properties have far underway outperformed the Gold Coast theme park peers. And maybe just to give you a bit of an insight as to GRI, because it sounds a bit like a dark art, it's not. It essentially is an independent online reputation index. It basically takes all of the external reviews that are out in market and aggregates them in to give us a GRI score. And to be honest with you, Brian, when you look at things like NPS, there's all sorts of things you can do in organizations to make NPS sound a whole lot better. But at the end of the day, things like GRI, that is the most pure version, I think, of guest feedback you can possibly get. So, again, I'd point you to Slide 16 and how we're thinking about that in terms of our relative performance in that regard.

Oh, Greg, I never said that GRI was dark art. I mean, I know a little bit about dark art. I mean, equity research. So, my last question is, can you talk about the maintenance CapEx outlook, given the upgrades to be done for the older rides that Jose was talking about?

Yes. Look, I'll give you -- well, maybe, Jose, if you want to talk about the numbers first and then I can give you a bit more of the color around how we think about it.

Yes. Maintenance CapEx sort of historically has tended to range between $5 million and $10 million per year. During the COVID impacted years, we were conserving cash and that sort of -- some of that stuff was put on [ ice ]. For the last couple of years, we've been sort of more at the upper end of that range, more around sort of $10 million and similar to what you've seen in FY '24 on the cash flow slide. Going forward, in the past, we've sort of said that from FY '24 -- '25 onwards, we saw ourselves sort of coming back down sort of more towards the middle of that range. That being said, obviously, the storms were impacting the group halfway through the year caused a lot of damage. And so, there will be a slightly higher but abnormal amount of CapEx this year to replace some of that -- some of those damaged assets, albeit that we will see insurance proceeds, funding that coming through in the P&L. So that's kind of where we sit now. I think, obviously, as we add new attractions, then they require less maintenance. And part of our investment strategy looks at things like lifetime cost of maintenance and tries to make sure that we optimize that sort of as much as possible. So we do see that after the next 12 months, coming back down towards that middle of that $5 million to $10 million a year range. So, Greg, is there anything further for you to add?

Well, yes, I'd just say, on top of all that, if we think about the fleet, one of our foundational pieces of strategy around safety has been closing attractions that we didn't feel fit the risk appetite of the organization. I think the Board has been very clear with us that high-quality vendors and a high-quality fleet in their minds and our minds, particularly, is just critical to what we do. And so, we've taken a lot of decisions to close attractions that didn't meet that hurdle. But there have been cases in some instances where we've taken a look at an attraction and we've had the view that we could invest in it. And as a result of that, get prolonged life. And if I were to point you to the Gold Coaster, for example, it's an older attraction, but we felt we had a very good handle on where it was. We do a lot of research and a lot of projecting around what the ongoing cost of maintenance looks like over the life cycle of an attraction, as Jose outlined. We do that, obviously, with what we look to retain, as well as what we look to procure. And so, things like that, things like the Giant Drop, we took the view that they are attractions that we wanted to invest in and continue to extend their life. I think the key point that I would say is that, we've done a lot of work in that regard. We've got really 2 attractions left on our minds that we're working through. And I think it's unreasonable for us to suggest to you that, that's not in our minds. It certainly is, and it's -- I think we've been pretty clear on that strategy as to the timelines and things like that. Well, that's -- a lot of that is just -- it comes down to -- it's driven a lot by vendors and a lot of the thinking that we have around, again, major upgrades of those attractions as we're required to by vendors.

Your next question comes from Allan Franklin with Canaccord Genuity.

Gary, Greg, Jose, good to see the sort of EBITDA anecdotes coming through the second half and the uptick there. Just interested in stepping into the cost base in a bit more detail, just in terms of how some of these other sort of activities that you put through core events and the like, just how those show through, both from sort of a cost and a revenue perspective just appearing in the back of the accounts as well. It looks like most of the revenue growth this year has come through from the sale of goods as opposed to services. Is there anything you can sort of help us peel back in terms of -- yes, I guess, the extent to which the core events have moved the dial?

Yes. No, good question. Look, I think the first thing with events that I'd say very clearly is that, these are not kind of off-the-cuff things that we think about doing. I know you're not suggesting that by any stretch. But before we go into these, we have a very clear look at what we're looking to achieve, and we only do them for strategic reasons. And so, I can tell you that there's a lot of work that goes into every one of these events. I'm sure my team, who are probably listening to this call, are not even furiously in agreement in that regard. So when we do these, they're really about for us that they need to be EBITDA accretive. And so, we do a lot of work on modeling that. And I think the key thing that we think about, though, is that, they are really designed to acquire new units. And I think particularly designed to also just show value to that annual pass. And if we can show value on the annual pass, we can sell more passes. But more importantly, we've already acquired guests. It really helps us in terms of retaining them. And we think that it's really important that the propensity of people to use their ticket and get value out of it really helps them think about whether they want to stay with us in the future. So all of these events that we put on, they are rigorously modeled. We look very, very closely at them. We report on that to the Board on a whole heap of different things, but mainly around how guests felt about it. So what is the guest feedback around these events and also how did they perform? And we look at it literally on a night-to-night basis. If we're going to add a night, we are running the numbers to make sure that that's going to make sense to us or not. So I think the other thing I'd say is, the things like the Snowy Nights or events that we ran through July, they are in our minds looking to just sweat an asset that we've already got. So we're running a Winterfest event through July already. Why wouldn't we try to look at running a few additional night events and really just extract the most we can out of that sunk cost that we've already had? And so, we think about it in that regard. We're very keen to make sure that we get efficiency out of them. And so, you won't see us do a lot of single day one-off events. Things like the Fun Run are probably the exception to the norm. But a lot of the time it's really about trying to extract value off already sunk cost.

Allan, I was just going to add a little bit. So you made an observation at the end of your last question around sale of goods revenue. Sorry, yes, sale of goods growing by more than the services. And that's partly a function of the fact that, as we mentioned, there has been a shift in ticking mix towards more annual passes. And as you know, with annual passes we get repeat visitations. So people come back and spend over and over in terms of F&B and retail revenue in park.

Yes, correct. No, that's fair. And just on the promotional activity, just a bit of extra color, please, if you can just touch on how often you feel you need to be in the market with some of this activity. It looks like you are in the market at the moment with a bit of sharper pricing on local passes and potentially on sort of 1- and 3-day passes as well. Just the extent to which -- with the frequency to which you're in the market and with the new rides coming through in December '24 or thereabouts, to what extent will you be reviewing pricing at that point to try and, I guess, capture and -- capture some of that capital back.

Yes, no worries. Look, I think on frequency, I'm a bit hesitant to go into that too much for obvious reasons. Let me say this, though, that we don't just pull the trigger when we think it's an off-the-cuff decision. Again, we model that rigorously. We are judicious in terms of how we think about it. We really don't want to do it unless we think there's an obvious need to do so. And we are trying to target particular demographics and particular ticket types when we do it. I think the better answer that I can give you in terms of the view in the medium-term is that, we absolutely see that we would be doing less of this. And I think we've demonstrated in the past that we're quite judicious in this regard when things are maybe less difficult for the consumer. We have a strong view that we want to be doing less of it, and we have a strong view around as we've increased the quality of the product, we absolutely need to think about what our pricing looks like going forward as well. And so, I don't want to give any specifics around how we think about price in any granularity other than to say that our mind is probably not dissimilar to yours. We put all this capital in when this product opens, and still that is some time away. You can expect that we would think that it's appropriate to change pricing in that regard commensurately.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time, and that does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.