EVT Limited (EVT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the EVT Limited Year-end Results. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Jane Hastings, CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining the call today. Before we get started, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land I'm speaking to you from today, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I'd like to pay my respects to elders past and present, and I'd like to acknowledge any and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander joining us today. Financial year '26 was a year of earnings growth and strategic progress. On group performance, revenue grew 6.3% and EBITDA grew 8.4% on prior year with growth across all operating divisions. Despite cost headwinds, underlying costs remain well managed and only marginally above pre-COVID levels. Net debt at 30th of June was $476.1 million, and our debt facility was renewed in March for a further 3 years with an overall limit of $750 million. Our outlook for financial year '27 remains positive. We expect EBITDA growth from the prior year for hotels and Entertainment, subject to film slate performance, weather conditions and general market conditions. Our balance sheet remains strong, and we're well positioned for future growth. Given the continuing improvement in our earnings profile and the outlook ahead, the Board has declared a fully franked final dividend of $0.23 per share payable in September. So today, we've made several important announcements. Firstly, on our hotels growth strategy. We gained further momentum, including asset-light expansion and are pleased to announce that Rydges Bank will be entering the Bangkok market. We established Connect Hospitality as a second pillar for growth and enhanced our capabilities, further cementing our confidence in the growth opportunities in our hotel brands. In relation to our property portfolio, we revalued the property portfolio at approximately $2.25 billion at 30th of June. We also completed our property portfolio review and as part of our continued capital recycling program, we plan to divest approximately $800 million of noncore property assets, including the George and Market Street precinct on a value-first basis. Finally, in relation to our group structure, we've engaged Rothschild & Co. with Board endorsement to independently assess management's recommendations on EVT's future group structure, which the Board has endorsed. I'll cover each of these throughout the presentation. Turning now to the results overview. Group normalized revenue was $1.3 billion, up 6.3% on prior year, with all divisions achieving growth. Hotels were up 5.1%, Thredbo up 10.6% and Entertainment was up 7.7%. Group normalized EBITDA was $174.4 million, up $13.6 million, again, with growth across all divisions, hotels up 1%, Thredbo up 13.7% and Entertainment up 45.8% overall with strong growth from Germany. We had solid hotel growth for the first 8 months of the year. Then as announced to the market in April, the Middle East crisis created a more challenging period during the fourth quarter. While these conditions affected the broader market, the strategies we deployed helped mitigate the impact, and we continued to grow market share through the period. After a weaker first half film lineup for Entertainment, the combination of a better second half film lineup and our Fewer better strategy resulted in strong growth on prior year and clear evidence of the operating leverage created. Thredbo also delivered EBITDA growth following a strong 2025 winter season, offset by a poor start to the June 2026 winter season. As expected, the property result fell $5.8 million following the successful sale of the group's investment property at 418 Adelaide Street Brisbane. Group unallocated expenses were above the prior year due to a higher incentive costs, reflecting the stronger result, but despite continued market cost challenges, remain only slightly above financial year '19 on an underlying basis. Reported net profit after tax was $50.7 million, up $17.3 million, driven by the improvement in performance across our businesses and the benefit of AASB 16. Before I talk to trading performance for each division, I want to cover off which is a hot topic, and that is how we're embracing AI at EVT. We put AI in the hands of our people. As an example, every general manager carries a financial year '27 AI STI goal, driving adoption and rewarding measurable productivity gains in day-to-day operations. In our support functions, AI is already embedded such as automating hotel back-office processes, room allocation, finance, night audit, also strengthening cyber threat detection, triage and response and powering EVT sustainability analysis and reporting. This is enabling us to optimize back office resourcing and enable teams to focus more on the customer experience. AI's biggest opportunity for EVT lies in how customers search, book and share feedback. This is where it will move the needle most. We're deploying AI chat and voice agents for bookings, in-room dining and restaurant reservations. We're advancing AI search and generative engine optimization, including conversational trip planning, AI optimized content and real-time sentiment tracking. We're leveraging this data to ensure EVT brands I have recommended in AI conversations. And we're moving into agentic commerce with autonomous agents that can plan, compare and complete a booking on a guest behalf. Following our Australian first Agentic payments launch with Mastercard, enabling AI agents to transact securely on a guest's behalf, we became the first hospitality group in Australia to launch EVT Hotels and Resorts in ChatGPT, letting guests discover our properties and start their booking journey directly inside an AI conversation. So in summary, we see AI benefits falling into 3 key areas: First, guest acquisition, where AI discovery channels are bringing customers direct to our channels rather than through intermediaries, protecting margin. Secondly, commercial optimization where better content, pricing signals and real-time sentiment lifts conversion. And finally, cost to serve, where automation of back office and support functions is refined. So AI is now embedded in how we approach our everyday. Focusing now on our Hotels division. Our hotel strategy has transformed to underpin our growth. EVT now operates across 2 complementary hotel growth platforms. The first platform is EVT Hotels and Resorts, comprising of QT, Rydges, Atura, LyLo and the Independent Collection. Within this platform, we'll grow by entering new markets such as entry into the lifestyle budget space with LyLo and Atura Snuggy Room concepts. We'll develop existing assets, including QT Queenstown and LyLo Gold Coast. We'll grow through acquisition of strategic locations like QT Auckland acquired in March and via asset-light expansion with a pipeline of management agreements secured under EVT owned brands or via the Independent Collection, which enables us to build bespoke brands for owners who want to retain their brand IP while leveraging our operating capabilities. The second growth platform is Connect Hospitality, which enables the management of third-party brands when an asset owner chooses to franchise a third-party brand and utilize EVT Group operating capabilities. Together, these 2 pillars give EVT multiple pathways to grow our earnings and build a more scalable business. To note, EVT is now the second largest hotel operator in Australia and New Zealand, including Connect with 101 hotels and over 16,000 rooms. Overall, the Hotels division delivered another record result. From a trading perspective, first half benefited from strong events, including the Lions Rugby Tour and the Ashes Cricket in November and December. The second half was impacted by the Middle East crisis with softness evident across 3 key areas. Firstly, we had weaker Easter trading at typical drive destinations. There was softer international inbound demand in key cities and more constrained corporate demand for conference and events. Airlines reducing domestic and trans-Tasman capacity made travel more constrained and pricier, which had an impact on shortened booking lead times and prompting corporates to reconsider short-term C&E spend towards the end of the June financial year. Booking lead times remain short, particularly for the corporate segment. And in July, we've been cycling the strong market conditions in the prior year that benefited the British and Irish Lions Rugby Tour. However, looking ahead, August is pacing ahead of last year with a good forward position in September and October. The owned hotel brand result was also temporarily impacted by the works at QT Queenstown and QT Gold Coast. We also had the continued disruption at QT Canberra due to the delayed light rail works being undertaken by the ACT government at the front of the hotel and the sale of Rydges Geelong. At the same time, the Hotels Group benefited from the contribution from around 6 months of Connect Hospitality and 3 months of QT Auckland. So despite some challenges, it has been a transformational year for the Hotels Group. We delivered a record result, record RevPAR across our owned hotel portfolio, strengthened our brands and are building our strongest pipeline for growth. Focusing first on the EVT Hotels and Resorts Group, which includes our own brands and independent Collection. This group has grown over -- grown to 84 hotels and 12,603 rooms. The full year EBITDA performance across this group was marginally down on prior year. However, adjusting for works at QT Gold Coast in Queenstown, underlying hotel earnings were up 3.2%. Overall, owned hotels occupancy was up 0.3 points to 79%, whilst average room rates were up 2.2% to $233, driving a record RevPAR result up 2.8% to $184. Each of our key hotel brands achieved record RevPAR results. Rydges RevPAR was up 6.7% on prior year, an outstanding result. QT RevPAR was flat due to the temporary impacts of QT Gold Coast and QT Queenstown Works during the year. But on an adjusted basis, excluding these properties, RevPAR was up 4.9%. And Atura RevPAR was up 2% on prior year. Thanks to the tremendous efforts by our team, our brands are continuing to deliver more than their fair market share. Looking now at our EVT Hotels and Resorts asset-light expansion. Under EVT Hotels & Resorts, the independent collection secured the George Hotel Brisbane and the Radisson Flagstaff in Melbourne. The Flagstaff hotel will be upgraded to Rydges towards the end of the year. We also embarked on our first hospitality management agreement by taking over food and beverage services at Wellington Airport in New Zealand. This leverages our group food and beverage capability into airport hospitality from branding to operations on behalf of the airport. We also have a great pipeline of owned brand hotels joining the group, including Atura Oran Park, a new 184-room hotel in Southwest Sydney, which is expected to open in the second quarter of the financial year. Located adjacent to the new Western Sydney Airport growth corridor, it's a great hotel that will strengthen the Atura brand in one of Australia's fastest-growing regions. QT Parramatta, as part of a landmark mixed-use development, this will be a new 265-room QT hotel experience, which is expected to open early in '27, bringing the QT brand to one of Australia's largest and fastest-growing CBDs. Rydges Tauranga in New Zealand is expected to open late in 2028, a new 158-room hotel with great conference offering in one of the New Zealand's strongest regional markets. Rydges Resort Wailoaloa Beach in Fiji, which is now under construction and expected to open in 2029, represents an exciting opportunity to extend Rydges into a major South Pacific tourism market. This is planned to be a 258-room beachfront resort with extensive leisure facilities, conferencing and great restaurants. Following the success of Duty Singapore, we identified Bangkok, one of the world's most visited cities as a priority Southeast Asian market for hotel management growth, and we have now secured a new Rydges flagship location. Rydges will enter the Bangkok market with the signing of a 15-year hotel management agreement for Rydges Bangkok Sukhumvit, a newly constructed 165-room hotel to open in 2028. Located in one of Bangkok's most established tourism and commercial precincts, the property will feature signature food and beverage offerings, leisure facilities and a rooftop pool. The interest in our brands is growing in Southeast Asia, and our aim is to ensure all EVT hotels and resorts brands expand into this market. To support this next phase of growth, we've also strengthened the hotel's development team capability with recognized and experienced leaders. We've welcomed Brett Forer, formerly Vice President, Development Pacific at Accor, and he's joined as Chief Development Officer, bringing deep hotel development experience across the region. We've also welcomed Harry Thaliwal, formerly CEO of Cross Hotels & Resorts, who's joined as Executive Vice President, Asia, based in Bangkok, bringing more than 3 decades of hospitality leadership across the Asia Pac region. Together, these appointments further strengthen our team to pursue disciplined hotel growth. In terms of our owned hotel investments, we acquired QT Auckland in March, recycling capital from the sale of Rydges Geelong. This was an important acquisition as it'secures a flagship asset in New Zealand's largest city and strengthens our presence in a key feeder market for QT Queenstown. At Atura Adelaide Airport, we launched Snuggy, a new 16-square meter room concept inspired by our LyLo insights. As an owner, we recognize the importance of maximizing real estate in hotel terms. This means smaller and smarter design footprints at lower capital investment with higher room rates and returns. It's a winning formula. The concept recognizes that for many guests, a contemporary and efficient room is more important than additional space. Room nights are priced at only around 10% to 20% below standard rooms despite being around half the size of a standard room. Also QT Queenstown, which is an exceptional and unique property located in one of the best locations in the strongest market. The first phase with 65 upgraded rooms is now online and is outperforming our expectations. The new conferencing area is arguably the best in market, and we are seeing record demand for those product. Our new wellness suites launching in Phase 3 will set a new standard for accommodation with unbeatable views. However, due to complexity of seismic rectification work from Stage 2 of this project, we're expecting around a 4-month delay in this phase. And as a result, this will impact incremental financial '27 EBITDA by around $3 million. Pleasingly, this is only timing related, and there's been no change in the cost of the development. QT Queenstown is now due to be completed by around October 2027. It will be 226 rooms, the majority with unbeatable views, adding 157 new QT rooms in total. The second development we're excited about, which is now in progress is LyLo Gold Coast located on underutilized EVT land adjacent to QT Gold Coast. It will offer 296 pod rooms, 46 private rooms and shared social space. The project will introduce the LyLo brand to one of Australia's largest tourism markets. We continue to see really strong interest in the LyLo brand and believe this property will help underpin the next phase of growth. Given the construction phasing of the development, we expect some short-term disruption to QT Gold Coast, which will be managed and is only expected to reduce financial year '27 EBITDA by around $1 million. To be clear, the short-term circa $4 million of EBITDA impact from these 2 projects will reduce the previously stated $17 million of incremental EBITDA in hotels to around $13 million EBITDA in financial year '27. However, the impact is timing related only with the associated earnings benefits expected to be realized progressively from financial year '28 and beyond. Following the completion of the QT Queenstown redevelopment and Lylo Gold Coast, the major investment projects across our owned hotel portfolio will be largely complete, positioning the business to benefit from a period of stronger earnings conversion and cash generation. Turning now to our new division, Connect Hospitality, which was launched in December last year following the acquisition of the Pro-Invest Hotels Management business. Connect Hospitality is operated by its own dedicated team focused on providing third-party hotel management services for owners who choose to franchise global hotel brands while leveraging EVT's group capabilities. The business expands our asset-light growth platform and provides access to a large and growing segment of the hotel management market. Pleasingly, we've improved the hotel portfolio performance under Connect Hospitality with RevPAR up 11% and gross operating profit up 20% compared to the prior year comparable period. We had guided that the acquisition would deliver earnings in the range of $8 million to $9 million, and this division is performing at the upper end of this. Recently, the Connect team also secured 2 new hotels, including the Sage James Street Brisbane and Country Comfort Perth. Overall, Connect Hospitality has started well and has interest from major hotel brands, which supports our confidence in Connect as a scalable hotel management platform. Overall, we now have 2 established hotel growth pillars, and we're excited about the growth we can generate in the future. Turning now to property. Based on the most recent independent valuations of each asset, the value of our property portfolio as at 30th of June was around $2.25 billion. Updated independent valuations were obtained for the Thredbo Alpine Resort and 3 hotels. The 3 hotels included Atura Adelaide Airport, Lylo Auckland and Lylo Brisbane, and all hotel property values increased following strong operating performance and strategic investment. The independent valuation of Thredbo decreased from $292 million to $143 million. The previous valuation was prepared following the outstanding 2022 winter season and subsequent winters have not yet had the conditions to replicate this performance. The valuation also reflects the near-term capital investment required in chairlifts and snowmaking infrastructure to continue to offer a premium all year-round Alpine Resort experience. While this will impact near-term cash flow, the investment is expected to protect long-term earnings and asset value over the remainder of the lease period. As announced as part of the capital recycling program, we've identified noncore property assets with a target of approximately $800 million for divestment, including the already announced 525 George Street property. In relation to 525 George Street, we remain committed to a sale of this asset. Several parties have undertaken detailed reviews of the property. However, the group has not yet reached a definitive outcome. We continue to be guided by CBRE who remain in discussion with interested parties. This broader $800 million divestment program also includes the George & Market Street precinct following a detailed review by management and the Board of the highest and best use of those assets. This precinct includes QT Sydney, the State Theatre, the Gowings retail property, EVT's head office and the development sites at 458-472 George Street. The development approval process for 458-47e George Street over the past few years has enhanced the value of the asset and established a clear pathway for future development. While a range of options were considered, including continued ownership, redevelopment and alternative ownership structures, we concluded that divestment represents the most attractive strategic option for redeployment of capital into alternative hotel growth opportunities. We've also identified a number of noncore hotel assets, including QT Canberra, Rydges Parramatta and 2 small freehold properties in Germany. As part of any sale process for noncore hotels, including the George & Market Street precinct, we aim to seek to retain long-term hotel management agreements as we've done in the past. The divestment program will be conducted on a value-first basis with proceeds recycled into hotel growth and the Board to consider special dividends to shareholders. We want to emphasize that we are not pursuing divestments for the sake of selling assets. We will only proceed where value, timing and structure are appropriate for shareholders. Execution is targeted over a 3- or so year period. However, the timing, structure and ultimate composition of the program remains subject to prevailing market conditions and achieving satisfactory outcomes. Upon completion of this divestment program, EVT will have a more focused, higher-yielding hotel property portfolio with a clearer alignment between our capital base and long-term hotel growth strategy. Turning now to Entertainment. So the combination of a stronger second half film slate and our Fewer, Better strategy underpins strong growth. In terms of a stronger film slate, it hasn't just been more films released. It's also been a more diverse film slate. That's exactly what's been missing these past few years as the industry worked through COVID and the Hollywood strikes disruption on studio production. As we've said, the audience never went away. They just didn't have enough films, all the right films to bring them back. In the second half, Michael, after multiple release delays became the biggest biopic of all time. The Devil Wears Prada 2, we achieved a record Chicks at the Flicks result. That's more than 26,000 customers together at an opening event. Obsession was a breakout from a newcomer that turned a sub-$1 million production budget into a box office hit of more than $450 million globally. And then Backrooms, A24's biggest film ever from a 20-year-old YouTube creator. Globally, both of these films were never expected to perform as well as they did. Families were also looked after with franchises they know and love, including the Super Mario Galaxy movie and Toy Story 5 among them. And we saw new stories breakthrough like Project Hail Mary, which defied expectations to become Amazon MGM's smash hit. In Germany, we also had record box office contribution from local films. But as we expected, titles that were anticipated to perform well and with disappointments included Supergirl and also Disney's The Mandalorian & Grogu and Masters of the Universe, which all struggled to find an audience. Three years on, film production is stabilizing whilst the studio landscape is changing with consolidated legacy studios, we're seeing new players like A24 and Amazon MGM stepping up. And release windows have settled with the major studios now committing to at least 45 days in cinemas after shorter windows were trialed and clearly found not to work. Our team has successfully executed our Fewer, Better strategy and the leverage we have created is evident. Whilst admissions for the Entertainment Group were up 3.6% on prior year, EBITDA was up 45.8%. In terms of Fewer, we had 11 Fewer cinemas at the end of this year compared to the beginning of the prior year. We have around 13 more locations to exit or renegotiate viable leases over the next 3 years, and completion of this will deliver a positive material uplift of around $10 million in EBITDA. In terms of Better, we completed key premiumization projects, expanding our IMAX and ScreenX footprint at key locations, including Marion, Innaloo, Fountaingate and Loganholme. So premium screens now represent around 40% of our Australian circuit. Looking ahead, an upgrade of our key Bondi location is in progress and due to reopen in November, and we have new ScreenX auditoriums planned at Macquarie, Shellharbour, Albany and Bondi and new IMAX auditoriums at Miranda and Berlin. We're focused on a footprint of high-performing sites where we see a clear pathway to strong premiumization returns with a return on invested capital in premium seats of over 20%. Successful execution of our Fewer, Better strategy is clearly delivering the operating leverage we aim to achieve. Looking by market in Australia on a modest lift in admissions, revenue was up 4.4% and EBITDA was up 14.5%. Across 4 months, including July, December, January and April, on 70% of pre-COVID admissions, we also met or exceeded pre-COVID levels of EBITDA for those months. This trend continued into July, assisted by the blockbuster performance of The Odyssey and Spider-Man Brand New Day. We achieved the Australian result with 7 Fewer locations relative to prior year, and Bondi was also closed for a major upgrade, and as I said, will reopen in November this year. In Australia, we also achieved market share growth on a like-for-like basis. In New Zealand, admissions were down 3.2% as we were cycling the very strong performance of a local title, Tina, in the prior year and were impacted by the partial temporary closure of Event Cinemas Manukau, a top 5 New Zealand location. Revenue fell by 8.3%, but costs were very well controlled with EBITDA improving on the prior year. We expect the New Zealand market to be profitable as the film supply normalizes. And EVT still remains the largest cinema operator in Australia and New Zealand by a number of locations. Germany clearly demonstrates the leverage we've created with admissions up 9.5%, revenue up 17.2% and an exceptional EBITDA growth of 254.8%, the best result for the circuit'since pre-COVID with 11 Fewer locations. On 95% of 2019 admits, we almost doubled CineStar EBITDA for the financial year. We are also collaboratively investing with our landlords in premium experiences in key locations in Germany with the recent opening of CineStar Oberhausen following an upgrade delivering one of the best cinema experiences in Europe. Despite clear market evidence of constrained consumer spending, when customers did choose the cinema, they treated themselves and spent more. 9 out of 12 months in Australia and 7 out of 12 months in New Zealand set new spend per head records. Cinema remains an affordable out-of-home option for customers. Turning now to Thredbo. After 2 poor winters in 2023 and 2024, we enjoyed better winter conditions in 2025. Summer trade started well with November and December revenue up 17.9% on the prior comparable period. However, January 2026 visitation was impacted by concerns in relation to bushfires in the region. As you'll be aware, we've then had a very slow start to the 2026 winter season. However, the all-weather snow factory installed, providing the ability to make snow at 20 degrees, has been invaluable. This enabled us to open Friday Flat from opening weekend and have a viable product for the beginners market. Without it, we would not have been able to open. Overall, Thredbo's revenue was up 10.6% and EBITDA was up 13.7%. We're also really proud to announce last month that Thredbo had become the first destination in Asia Pacific to achieve Earthheck Platinum accreditation, recognizing a decade of independently verified progress across environmental, social and governance performance. Thredbo was also recognized for the ninth year in a row as Australia's Best Ski Resort, which is an incredible achievement for the Thredbo team. Summarizing the logic behind some of today's announcements. First, while we've successfully navigated external market headwinds and deployed new strategies in Entertainment and Thredbo over the past 5 years, we've been clear that we see the most attractive long-term growth opportunity in hotels. And to realize that opportunity, we've invested in hotel brands, capabilities and platforms to grow. We've strengthened our position in Australia and New Zealand, and we're now entering Southeast Asia. We believe there remains a significant runway for growth across our 2 hotel growth pillars, and that is where our capital allocation priorities are focused. Second, as we've reviewed our property portfolio and we've identified a number of property assets that are not delivering acceptable returns and where ownership is not essential to achieving our strategic objectives. So as a result, we've identified that $800 million of noncore property should be divested over the next 3 or so years. In short, we see an opportunity to recycle capital from lower priority assets into higher growth opportunities whilst maintaining a disciplined approach to shareholder returns. Third is how we intend to use that capital. Simply put, hotels growth. Our own hotel upgrades will be substantially complete once QT Queenstown and LyLo Gold Coast are finalized, and we're investing to accelerate asset-light growth with our new development team, as I've mentioned earlier. We will continue to consider strategic hotel acquisitions, either by ourselves or in partnership as we did during the year with QT Auckland. We'll also pursue hotel management company acquisitions to grow our asset-light portfolio as we did with the Pro-Invest acquisition. At the same time, we'll look to reduce debt and the Board will consider -- continue to consider potential for special dividends as opportunities are realized. In terms of the group structure, over the past few years, we've been navigating external industry challenges and building our hotel growth platform. We've done a lot of work behind the scenes on various group structure options that we see as a pathway to maximize value for all shareholders and to ensure capital allocation is directed towards our highest growth platform in hotels. Now is the right time to get an independent assessment of these options. Together, management and the Board have appointed Rothschild & Co. to conduct this assessment. We want to ensure this receives independent review before anything is shared publicly. To be clear, no decisions have been made, and there's no certainty this results in any transactional structural change. An independent committee of the Board comprising Brett Chenoweth, Peter Coates, and David Grant has been formed to oversee the process. Given the complexity of the group, we've set financial year '27 as the time line to complete this work properly. We'll provide updates as appropriate, balanced against our continuous disclosure obligations and the need to protect shareholder interest through the process. Now looking ahead to financial year '27 trading outlook. We expect further EBITDA growth in financial year '27. In hotels, the second half of '26 was genuinely constrained by related impacts from the Middle East shock. Whilst that pressure is not fully unwound, what continues to evolve are our initiatives from rate discipline, direct channel growth to targeted campaigns, which are delivering results and EVT is outperforming its markets. Hotel demand fundamentals are intact. We know we'll have the impact of works at LyLo on QT Gold Coast and the wholesale segment is cycling last year's Lions tour and Ashes tours affecting the first half specifically, but these are not demand signals. Conditions will build as those items roll off. We're also advancing our sales efforts to secure business in relation to the Rugby World Cup in October 2027, which will be a big boost for hotels early in the financial '28 year. Overall, in financial year '27 for hotels, we expect to deliver another record year. In Entertainment, a great start to the year with the Odyssey driving strong demand, followed by a record-breaking Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Looking ahead, the Christmas slate looks strong on paper with the Avengers: Doomsday; Dune: Part Three, The Hunger Games; and Jumanji: Open World. We're anticipating a strong first half for Entertainment, subject to film performance, and the second half is yet to fully take shape in terms of film lineup. In Thredbo, due to a lack of natural snow this winter season, the divisional EBITDA result is tracking below the prior year. The results for the full year will remain subject to winter conditions in September and summer weather. We'll provide an expected earnings range for Thredbo at the end of the current winter season at the October AGM. Overall, for the group, subject to external market factors outside of our control, our financial year '27 outlook is positive. Before I end, I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone at EVT for their incredible contribution to a solid financial year '26 result. Thanks to you all for listening today, and I'll now take questions.

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

I just wanted to ask on the cinema business. You've given like-for-like numbers with the hotels around sites that are offline, et cetera. Is there a quantifiable impact of some of the like Bondi being offline in the cinemas business in the last year and any other sites undertaking meaningful refurbishments into '27?

Nick, this is Dave and afternoon, everyone. I think Jane in the presentation referenced our market share growth like-for-like, which is 0.4 percentage points. We haven't quantified any further than that, but hopefully, that gives you a guide of how we're tracking.

Yes, that doesn't give an earnings number, but you've kind of given us that for the hotel. So maybe just turning to that. I think previously, you said that you'd expect the impact of Connect QT Auckland and QT Queenstown coming back online through FY '27 would be $17 million, now it's $13 million. Can you just help us reconcile the delta on that?

Sorry, Nick, just coming back to that Entertainment question. We're not giving any guidance for the impact of Bondi because last year's slate doesn't reflect next year's slate. So it's not a very useful number at this point. Sorry, what was your second question relating to the 13 versus the 17?

Yes. Just on the Bondi, I guess, it is more just what the underlying growth was in '26, given I think you were impacted by Bondi for a period. On the '27 number, I was referring to the hotel contribution from Connect Auckland and Queenstown previously guided to $17 million, and now it's $13 million. Just wanted to square those numbers.

Sure. That's right. As mentioned in the presentation, what we've got there is we've got a Phase 2 delay to the seismic strengthening works at QT Queenstown, which accounts for about $3 million of that. And then also just in early stages of the development breaking ground at LyLo Gold Coast, we are expecting about $1 million impact on QT Gold Coast business. So that's where the $4 million comes out of that, which was just a short-term really delay from those things.

Okay. Cool. And then just on the property side, the $800 million, that's just based on the last assessed independent valuation because presumably, I think the 525 and the 458 sites are carried at $245 million, which is an older valuation? Or were they revalued as part of the FY '26 independent valuations?

No, you're right. They're based on the older valuations. They weren't revalued as part of the FY '26 valuations.

And so the $800 million is based on whatever those properties contribute to the $2.25 billion?

Yes.

And then the -- I guess the other question was just in terms of the 525 site. Do you still feel confident about getting a result there? And if there's any context you can give us around it and why it's maybe taking a bit longer than anticipated?

Yes. Nick, it's Matt. I think as Jane mentioned in the presentation, we've had a number of parties look at it, and we still are in discussions with parties. We're just working through and making sure we get the right result. We know what the market conditions are, and we will ensure that we get the right value given the market conditions.

Great. And then maybe just one last one for me. On the 458 site. Can you just talk us through the -- what that site will be marketed as and what the final development approval or the most recent development approval envisioned that site consisting of? And then presumably, you will retain the podium session -- or is that also no longer intended to be an extension of the QT?

Sorry, Nick. It is the total block. So we won't be retaining any part of it. So it includes the QT Sydney, State theater, development block, our offices, it's all included in the divestment.

Okay. And then so the -- is there an approval for what goes above the podium? Like is it going to be an office or hotel or is that still up for grabs? And then I guess just the rationale for wanting to divest the QT Sydney, which I thought was quite a high-performing good asset?

Yes. I think in terms of the development approvals, we've got an approval for the podium, a tower development. We have not put a DA in. That will be for an owner to decide what's the best shape and form of that unused air space effectively, we have 30,000 square meters of unused GFA that can be unlocked. And I think with the whole precinct, they're all different titles, but there's a lot of interconnectivity between them. The QT is actually straddling 2 buildings. We have State Theater in there. And for a future development opportunity, it's -- we think it's best if someone controls the whole precinct. But we'll also be open to what the market tells us when we go through the process, but that's the rationale for that.

And on the QT Sydney, Nick, we back ourselves to either retain a long-term management agreement or secure another QT Sydney location. It's a high demand brand. So we're confident when looking at options that we're not going to be impacted by that.

The next question comes from Apoorv Sehgal with Jarden.

Just on the hotels business from an FY '27 EBITDA outlook perspective. So I mean, as a starting point, I guess, do we just add kind of plus $13 million to that $107 million you just reported. But then I guess if you take the next step beyond that, would it be fair to assume some growth over and above just the underlying hotel growth, winning more managed contracts? Or do you think that potentially gets offset by some downside from macro volatility potentially?

I think you need to make your own assumptions. The first part of that of just adding on the $13 million to $107 million is correct. And then your assessment of the market after that would be an addition.

There was a comment, Jane, I think you made earlier, which is interesting. I think you said August is tracking ahead of PCP at the moment and the pipeline looks good into September, October. Was that purely just taking a part of the plus $13 million coming through? Are you saying like even excluding the unwind of that $13 million, even excluding that, you're actually seeing underlying growth in September year-on-year?

Yes, that was referring to underlying business performance.

Okay. Okay. That's good to hear. Can I also just ask a question then on the cinema business. In the -- you called out the $10 million of EBITDA upside from the Fewer, Better strategy as you exit further sites. And sorry if I didn't quite hear it. Did you say or can you say how long that will take to realize the $10 million and potentially you can quantify how much of that you get in FY '27 itself?

Yes. No, that's over the next 3 years as those leases come up for negotiation. So the $10 million would be over that period. Not much of that is in this next financial year. It's more the following 2.