I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Nick Pagent, CEO.
Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, Zoe, and thank you and good morning to all of those of you who've dialed in for the call this morning. Welcome to the investor presentation for the financial results for Autosports Group for the 2021 financial year. As Zoe said, my name is Nick Padgett. I'm the CEO of Autosports Group. And joining me today is Aaron Murray, the CFO of Autosports Group.
This morning, we'll start with a short presentation on the 2021 financial year results and the financial and strategic trends that underpin these results. Following the presentation, we'll open up the call to any questions you may have. As we move through the presentation lodged this morning on the ASX, I will, where possible, note the relevant slide number. So if we start at Slide 4 on that presentation for anyone following. Firstly, I'd like to say it's pleasing to report to investors that following a difficult period, the new car market has returned to growth in 2021 financial year.
On a financial year basis, the market grew by 9.6% with that growth accelerating in the second half of the year, growing at 28.3% in the second half of the year. Secondly, it was pleasing to see the group's gross profit margins continue to grow as they have consistently over the last 5 years as our business has grown. Thirdly, it was pleasing to see the resilience of the business during the COVID-nineteen related lockdowns, particularly in Victoria in the first half of the twenty twenty one financial year. Delivering growth with those headwinds has given us confidence in the business model and our capacity to navigate lockdowns, but also to deliver strong financial returns for our shareholders. So to the highlights.
Statutory revenue was up by 16.3 percent on FY 2020 to $1,980,000,000 The normalized net profit before tax grew to $75,300,000 up from $23,100,000 in the 2020 financial year. This was achieved on a combination of higher revenue and improved operating leverage. Strong operating cash production of $94,000,000 has the business well positioned for growth. During the period, our tangible assets grew as we grew our property portfolio, which post the settlement of the Bandura BMW property in November this year will grow to $76,000,000 Our disciplined growth by acquisition continued with the gross profit margin supportive acquisitions of Brighton Jaguar Land Rover and the John Newell Mazda Business in Alexandria. And today, we're declaring a final dividend of $0.07 per share.
Again, in this period, the dividend was assessed on a cash basis as we look to return to our normal dividend payout policy once the external environment reduces in uncertainty. If I move to Slide number 5 to start to look at the statutory result highlights. The statutory revenue grew, as we said, by 16.3%. This was driven by organic growth of $211,000,000 during the period as our underlying business benefited from strong trading conditions. $116,000,000 was also added to the revenue line driven by the impact of acquisitions between 2019 2021.
Gross profit growth of 27.5% expanded faster than revenue as gross profit margins grew, not just in new and used vehicles, but in every one of Autosports Group's revenue streams. Within this high revenue and high gross profit margin growth, the business did a good job controlling expenses. This helped us drive improved operating leverage. Operating expenses grew 11% for the year with $9,000,000 of this coming from organic growth tightly managed and $14,000,000 coming from the impact of acquisitions in the period of 2019 to 2021. As we move to Slide 6 to look at the normalized financial results, you can see here in the segments that we generate revenue.
That's growth revenue growth came predominantly from new car revenue, which grew by 28.8%. Importantly, this growth in new vehicle revenue continues to be limited by supply constraints rather than demand. It is clear that this tight new and used vehicle supply environment will continue through the 2022 financial year on the combination of strong demand and our OEM suppliers being faced with semiconductor shortages. Gross profit margins grew in the business to 17.1% for the year, indeed higher than that of 17.4% in the second half of the year post the Victorian lockdown. This improvement in retained gross profit margins has been a trend that we've been working on for 5 years now.
As we look forward, we can see the 28.8% growth in new vehicles supporting growth in our service and parts business into 2022 financial year and beyond. Growth in the higher margin service and parts business will support our overall gross margin profit plans into the future. It was therefore pleasing as well to see post the Victorian lockdowns a bounce back in service and parts revenue. Both were down in the first half of the twenty twenty one financial year and both recovered well to growth in the second half of the twenty twenty one financial year. The OpEx ratio was fell to 12.4% during the year on higher site throughputs, lease consolidations and tight expense control, particularly in acquired businesses.
As a result, this combination of revenue growth, margin growth and expense management saw the normalized EBITDA grow from 44,200,000 in 2020 financial year to $93,100,000 in the 2021 financial year. And normalized net profit before tax grow from $23,100,000 dollars in the 2020 financial year to $75,300,000 in the 2021 financial year. This growth is a product of strong trading conditions, but also the product of strong management planning that goes back more than 5 years. If we move to Slide 7, I'd like to take a look briefly at how we've grown the business since we listed on the ASX now 5 years ago in 2016. In 2016, we came to the market and said there was an opportunity to consolidate a fragmented market.
We said that we had the opportunity to grow our brand representation and also our geographic footprint. We said that gross profit margins will improve as we improve our revenue mix and the diversity of our revenue. We said that scale will deliver synergies and will increase operating leverage. Now we've got a larger template. We've got 64% more brands, 62% more revenue.
We've got better gross margins, tightly managed OpEx, trending down as we improved our acquired expense base, higher EBITDA and net profit before tax margins and now a solid base of $76,000,000 in property to underpin our tangible assets. If we move to Slide 8, to have a little bit of a look at our growth record during the same time. Our growth record is consistent. It's on strategy and it's margin supportive. Since 2016, we've completed 8 acquisitions and opened 4 greenfield sites with future plans already announced for 2 exciting additional greenfields projects in 2022 with Ducati and in 2023 with BMW.
The brands we've grown with give us scale and reach. In the prestige and luxury segments, we've added businesses with BMW, MINI, Mercedes Benz, Land Rover, Jaguar and Mazda. In the super luxury segment, we now dominate the segment with Rolls Royce, Bentley, McLaren, Maserati and Aston Martin added to our dealership offerings prior to 2016. As we look forward to future growth, the business will look for brands with a strong future product plan, particularly ones that include electric vehicle capability, businesses with high gross margin potential and businesses capable of improvements by Autosports through management skill and business synergies. If we move to Slide 4, we can see the impact across Slide 9, sorry.
We can see the impact across the last 5 years of not just increasing our revenue, but diversifying the portfolio. In 2016, when we listed, 41% of Autosports Group's revenue came from single brand. Revenue was almost exclusively generated in New South Wales and Queensland. Our growth plan has made us now less reliant on individual brand fortunes and single geographic locations. Our increased diversity brings us more stability and the prospect of more consistent returns.
Looking forward, this strategy of growth by consolidating a fragmented market and disciplined growth with the right brands in the right places will continue. Continuing the theme on trends, I'd like now to ask Aaron to share some more detail on our financial trends, margin, expense management and then our cash, liquidity and balance position balance sheet position to unlock future growth. Thank you, Arun.
Thank you, Nick, and good morning to everybody on the call. If you move to Slide 11, I'll talk to our financial trends. Historically, ASG has shown consistent revenue growth through a mix of organic and acquired revenue. Over the FY 'sixteen to FY 'twenty one period, ASG has achieved a combined annual growth rate of 10%. Pleasingly, over the same period, new vehicle revenue had a compound annual growth rate of 12%, which has created future depth of revenue growth in the high margin back end service parts and cleaning repair departments.
In FY 'twenty one, ASG's total revenue was just short of $2,000,000,000 an increase of 16.3% on PCP with the major areas of growth coming with $213,000,000 of organic growth and $98,000,000 in acquired growth. ASG's resilient business model has led revenue growth that has outperformed market growth. If you move to Slide 12, I'll talk about gross profit margin overview. ASG's gross margin continues to improve. Gross margin has been supported by historical acquisitions of assets that presented high margin opportunities, maturing greenfield sites and a favorable new and used market conditions.
Margin has improved from FY 'sixteen of 14.5 percent to 17.1% at FY 'twenty one. Margin continues to improve in every revenue stream through the FY 'twenty one period with the first half margin of 16.7 percent improving to 17.4% in the second half of the year, the first half being impacted by Victorian lockdowns. If you move to Slide 13, expense management. ASG's OpEx ratio continues to decline as a result of disciplined expense reduction strategies. ASG has focused on-site rationalization to reduce occupancy costs and has employed a significant focus on driving the group's existing scale benefits and synergies through our acquired businesses.
Through the FY 'sixteen to FY 'twenty one period, ASG has reduced operating expenses of $7,900,000 across our acquired businesses. Management continues to review operating structure to ensure the business is in line with the market. If you move to Slide 14, I'll talk to our margin overviews. Historically, EBITDA and PBT margins have been impacted by acquisitions that were running with higher OpEx margins than the group's wider margins. The OpEx improvements in acquired sites has benefited the group's EBITDA and GP margins.
In FY 'twenty one, EBITDA and PBT margins have improved significantly to 4.7% and 3.8%, respectively. Margins continue to improve through the FY 'twenty one financial year with the second half improving on the first half margins. Margins have been impacted positively by favorable marketing market conditions, improved site utilization, improved property portfolio, lowering occupancy costs and lower inventory balancing balances reducing both interest and holding costs. If you move to Slide 15, I'll talk to our cash flows. ASG had strong normalized operating profit cash of $94,000,000 and a closing cash balance of $96,800,000 at June 21, which has been driven by strong operating profit.
Strong cash flows allowed a first half dividend of $4,000,000 despite uncertainty due to COVID-nineteen. The company increased borrowings by $4,200,000 represented by an aggressive pay down on existing corporate debt of $25,100,000 and the drawdown of $29,400,000 in corporate debt to fund predominantly real estate assets. 2021 saw almost $33,000,000 in PP and E expenditure with $24,700,000 of this value relating to real estate acquisitions. 2022 major capital expenditure will include $12,100,000 for the acquisition of John Muir Mazda and $18,350,000 for the acquisition of the Bundoora BMW property, which will be debt funded to 90%. If you move to Slide 16 and 17, I'll talk to our liquidity and balance sheet position.
The prudently managed balance sheet through uncertain times has seen ASG's liquidity increase by $117,000,000 to $346,000,000 since June 'twenty. ASG's closing cash position increased by $58,000,000 to $96,800,000 This closing cash position, along with undrawn bailment facilities of $300,000,000 ensures ASG is well positioned for future acquisition opportunities and enables ASG to pay a dividend despite the uncertainty of COVID. ASG continues to have supportive OEM financiers with 97% of ASG's corporate debt and 100% of Baumann Finance funded by OEM Financiers. ASG's net debt excluding floor plan has improved from $51,000,000 to a net asset of $1,000,000 Corporate debt of $95,600,000 is backed by real estate assets of $56,500,000 This increase in owned property has resulted in improved profit margins and cash flows. ASG's inventory reduced by $89,000,000 in the period despite an increase of 28.9 percent in new vehicle revenues.
This has driven significant reductions in interest expenses through the FY 'twenty one period. ASG has improved its balance sheet position to ensure its future ready, whether it be the defense of future COVID-nineteen interruptions or to take advantage of consolidation opportunities. I'll hand back to Nick. Thank you.
Thanks, Aaron. Before I spend a little time talking on our revenue generating segments and how we're going to move the core business forward, I just thought I'd make some comments on the current situation with the COVID related lockdowns. And I thought it was important to start with the learnings that we've had from previous lockdowns because this is not the first time we've been locked down. Indeed, in the 2021 financial year, we were locked down strongly in Victoria for 117 days during the period. So we do have some strong learnings and some strong methods by which we can improve the outcomes for the business during these temporary lockdowns.
First thing is, it's clear that the first priority is the safety of our staff and our customers. And we're fully complying with all of the health orders in regards to lockdowns. From the previous lockdowns, what was key, important and very, very and very, very pleasing for us is that our business model remains relevant. The customers still want to visit our showrooms. They still want to test drive the cars.
And they still want to trade in cars at the dealership. These key things that we do are required in the buying process. It is not that simple to disrupt them. And the bounce back in the business shows that clearly in 2021. We know now that CRM is crucial to driving the best outcomes.
We know that people are more likely to do business during the lockdown with somebody they've done business with before. So the depth of our database and the depth of our relationships is a critical advantage during this time. We know that our marketing team needs to pivot. We know that it needs to have calls collection, and we need to know and we need to also have marketing that positions us well for a post lockdown bounce. There is a difference in this market between what I would call shoppers and buyers.
Buyers are all out there and they will transact and particularly we see that in the top end of our product portfolio where buyers will buy specialist products without driving them and join a long order bank. But there are also shoppers that need to test drive and want to go and test the proposition beforehand. It is the shoppers that we need to go and position ourselves well for the bounce. Staff are critical during this time and it becomes more difficult for them during lockdown if they're not working at least some hours during the time. So rostering them, splitting teams and ensuring that they're well engaged during the period helps us through this period.
Now the current situation in New South Wales and Victoria, I think is well known. Firstly, 75% of Autosports Group's revenue comes from New South Wales and Victoria. Within that framework, 27 of our showrooms are currently closed to customers. Vehicle sales remain open, but on a contactless basis and a contactless delivery basis. Servicing remains open on the same basis.
Parts and panel repairs continues as well on the same basis. Now one thing we know from the Victorian lockdown last year is that over the 1st couple of weeks of it, you can't tell the impact. In fact, our strong forward order banks have mitigated impacts at the start of the lockdown. So what we know today is that we cannot that the lockdowns on 2012 the impact of lockdowns will depend on the length of the lockdowns. And also, the length of the lockdowns will bear upon the strength of the post lockdown recovery.
Mitigation during this time comes from our good and improved new vehicle order bank, which is now coming through for delivery to customers our learnings and leveraging our CRM, marketing and staff processes utilizing the government programs to manage variable expense outcomes, if there is a drop in demand and taking advantage of contactless touch points to maximize our revenue opportunities. I'll move from COVID to talk about the new car market very quickly. On slide 20. We continue to do a good job when compared to the market. We do that good job because we're in the right places.
We have the right brands. We have good processes that drive these outcomes. And our performance in this area is not new. In the period 2014 to 2021, Autosports new vehicle revenue has grown on a compound average growth rate of 20%. The market, in fact, during that time has declined by 1.1%.
In the 2021 financial year, the market grew by 9.6% on a financial year basis. Watersports Group grew at 28.8% in U. K. Revenue. And on a like for like basis, watersports grew at 22%, again showing the combination of growth via organic means and growth via acquisition.
Autosports Group benefits from diverse revenue streams and improvement here will drive future growth in gross profit margin production. That's why we look at the other revenue streams. And if we move to Slide 21, I'd just like to talk to you about used cars quickly. Autosports Group has a simple used car strategy. It's built around sourcing well priced used cars and retailing them through the correct channels to maximize returns.
We use 3 main channels to market. The franchise used car outlets. They concentrate on late model cars. They benefit from OEM backed warranties and they're often sold as new vehicle alternatives, particularly during the current period where new vehicle supply is under pressure. We also use our prestige autotrader's used retail hubs.
These hubs across Queensland, North Sydney and in the inner west of Sydney concentrate predominantly on 5 to 10 year old cars. We look here to take scale and take costs out of the retail experience to deliver a good return and a quality well priced used car to the market. Further down, if the car gets older and it becomes a bigger risk, we use our prestige auto traders wholesale hubs, concentrating, of course, here on lower on older vehicles. We want lower risk here. We want fast spot turns.
And we want defensive capability in case of any market downturns. Now this strategy for us works, and it's worked well over many years. In fact, the net profit before tax margin that we generate in our used car hubs is higher than the average net profit before tax margin that we generate across the rest of the business. In the first half of the year, tight supply and the impact of lockdowns in Victoria meant that our revenue was down 7% on lower stock availability. The second half of the year, as we move saw a 9% improvement in our used car revenue during the period.
We see this area as an area where demand will continue to grow. It is likely in the short term that demand will exceed supply. But as demand and supply normalizes, there is good opportunity for our growth to grow its used car footprint, particularly in the area of used car hubs and the wholesale market. Moving to parts and service. Firstly, why do we focus on this area?
We focus on this area because it's more resilient, it's more predictable and it has higher margins. The growth in our back end revenue streams over the last between 2016 and 2021 has been at a compound average growth rate of 21%. Now as I mentioned earlier, this has been temporarily impacted by COVID in the first half of the twenty twenty one financial year as we were unable to open effectively during that time. Now the second half of the year returned to good growth, 8% in our service department on the second half of twenty twenty two 2020 financial year. Post lockdowns, Watersports Group is targeting a return to a gross profit margin split of 55% of the gross profit coming from the front end revenue streams of vehicle sales, finance and aftermarket and 45% in the back end service and parts business.
We believe that is a well balanced business that allows for a growing new car and used car market that has the right revenue mix moving forward to generate strong gross profit returns. We see demand for service increasing as for 2021 strong new vehicle volumes return for service. We see customers who have deferred their service during COVID reentering the market and higher traffic on the roads post lockdown will support higher parts and collision repair income. I spoke at the start about our property portfolio. Since 2018, we've started to go and bring property onto the balance sheet.
Fundamentally, the first reason that we did that was to make sure that we control the important assets, that we remove the risk of moving strategically important sites, That we were able to manage our portfolio on a flexible basis as well if any of the sites did not no longer become important. We could then sell more easily than move out of the lease. Of course, it improves the tangible asset base that strengthens our balance sheet. During this growth in our property portfolio, we've utilized our supportive OEM financiers to make sure that we're not taking valuable shareholder capital from dealership acquisition opportunities. Through to the acquisition of the Bandura Panel Shop, we now are moving towards a property portfolio of $76,000,000 If I turn now to Slide 24 to have a look at some of the other operational and structural things that we're doing to improve the business moving forward.
I said earlier, the acquisitions of Brighton, Jaguar Land Rover and John Newell, Mazda, they're high profit potential businesses. They're many metropolitan markets with great synergy opportunities. They're great brand partners with strong future product portfolios. We think we've bought them on disciplined acquisition multiples and we believe that they're going to support growth in our gross margins. The greenfields growth that I also touched on before, Ringwood BMW, where the landlord is funding construction out there.
It is right next to our Doncaster BMW site. The synergies will be good and strong between those sites. Also, Ducati in Sydney, the high performance motorcycle brand, which will sit within our super luxury hub at Alexandria, meaning very, very low fixed and semi fixed expenses coming into the business and high quality brand joining the portfolio to add to our BMW Motorcycle business. Site consolidations continue to be underway. The BMW Melbourne Kingsway development is being constructed at the moment.
The Mount Gravatt being Volkswagen business is being built on company owned land at MacGregor. And we've relocated our Lamborghini Brisbane business to our hub at Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley. Property acquisitions, Brighton Land Rover and the Bundoora BMW Business. All of these operational and structural things that we've done this year will support margin, support revenue and take cost out of the business to increase what we've done this year in generating further operating leverage. If I go now to our focus areas and outlook.
Of course, we start by ensuring the health and safety of our staff and customers during this period. We maintain the focus on gross margin across all revenue streams. We concentrate on settling the Bundoora BMW property and integrating the John Muir Mazda business. We drive further fixed expense reductions by advancing our site consolidation strategy. As Aaron said, we maintain a conservative cash and liquidity discipline during this time to make sure that we are well capitalized for growth opportunities.
We position the business for a strong balance as the New South Wales and Victorian lockdowns. To the outlook on Slide 27, the current lockdown restrictions mean outcomes remain uncertain. This makes it prudent for us not to provide guidance at this time. However, underlying demand is expected to remain strong throughout the 2022 financial year for all of our revenue streams. New vehicle supply will continue to be constrained through the 2022 financial year as a result of the worldwide semiconductor shortage.
Our previous experience suggests that there'll be a strong retail bounce back post lockdowns in New South Wales and Victoria. And we also believe that the acquisition environment continues to remain conducive for further industry consolidation. If I stop now and open the call for any questions that you may have.
Thank Your first question comes from James Freyja with Wilsons. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Nick and Aaron. Thanks for your time and congratulations on the result.
Thank you, James, and thanks for joining us.
First question is around vehicle supply. We've seen more recently some of the Asian manufacturers like Toyota are now cutting production whereas the Europeans probably passed the worst point of their production constraints. Is that a fair observation do you think?
I think that's fair observation, James. It doesn't mean that the European manufacturers are without tight constraints, and they have been moving production around a little bit to conserve semiconductors. We feel reasonably confident with our next 6 months supply. It will be in line with our expectations. However, it is very, very tight through this period and it will support that used car market as well during the period.
Yes. Yes. Okay. That makes sense. Can you give us some color on what sort of growth you're seeing in your order rights in recent months?
Yes. So through the last 7 months 7, 8 months since January last year, we've had order right which has exceeded our deliveries. I spoke to you last in May and I confirmed to you then that order our order banks have grown. Our order bank is bigger again now in August. What we're seeing during this lockdown period, James, is people buying cars which have longer lead times that they're easier to purchase without a test drive.
So we're seeing a maintenance and a slight increase in a very strong order banks.
Okay. Great. And thanks also for the color on your margins too. The questions I had around margins were sort of starting on Slide 12 there. And I think Aaron, you mentioned second half twenty twenty one that gross margin lifted to 17.4%.
As the back end operations, particularly in Victoria, sort of move back towards their normal cadence. Did that 17.4% reflect the normal front end, back end split? Or is there still more benefit to come from that dynamic?
I'll talk to that James, if that's all right. First, there's 2 parts to that. Firstly, yes, it did reflect a more normal cadence in terms of gross margins and also the EBITDA and PBT margin potential of the business. However, the second half of the year is also, as you know, seasonally a higher volume new car part of the market. And as new cars drive forward, we get some reduction in margins overall.
So the second half the first half of the financial year is generally and historically higher in gross margin production than the second half of the year. But the increase that you see reflected in the financials reflects the return of service and parts revenue.
Yes. Okay. That's helpful. So all things equal and appreciate with the lockdowns and everything else, but just thinking about the normal seasonality of the business alone, it's just on that point alone, it's probable that first half twenty twenty two margins would be a bit below second half twenty twenty one?
Yes. It really depends on the impact of lockdowns there. I'll historically the first half of the financial year is stronger than the second half, but it just depends on the impact of lockdowns. I will say, James, that the most solid ground that I'm on is talking about the underlying business rather than the impact of what I don't know.
Yes. Of course. Of course. Last question and just building on that gross margin chart there. The uplift in margins, there's been a couple of years of sort of turbulence around impacts from external factors there.
But looking at that second half twenty twenty one result compared to say FY 2018, there's close to 200 basis points of gross margin expansion. There's obviously been a lot of effort put in by you and your team around the mix of front end, back end. There's been greenfield sites maturing, etcetera. But I'm wondering if we put those factors to the side, if you could give us some color around what sort of expansion you've seen in the straight up margins on new and used vehicle sales?
Yes. So new and used vehicle sales, 1st of all, they're our lowest margin generators on a percentage basis. And they've moved forward probably close to what you've talked about that 200 basis points during the last 15 months. What to me is more sustainable and better news is that we've moved forward in all of the other revenue streams in terms of gross margin production. And some of the reasons that we've done that are through learnings via COVID and lockdowns.
We were a bit loose with our control of labor costs in service as we were trying to grow that revenue stream. And we've tightened that up during the last 12 months, and that's produced higher service margins for us. We were also had a good chance to look at our parts business and our parts margins and how we were generating our wholesale and trade business revenues. And what we've found is that we've been able to grow margin in those businesses and that's been good as well. We've found during the period that our finance and insurance costs have remained stable and we've become more efficient there and that's generated more margin.
And that's been the same in our aftermarket business as well. So for me, yes, we've had some growth in new and new sales margins and they've been in line with the growth that we've had elsewhere. The more maintainable stuff is below that line and that's the stuff that I'm more excited about.
Yes. Okay. That's good color. Thanks, Nick.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Matt Johnston with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Nick and Aaron. Can you hear me?
Yes, I can. Matt, good morning.
Maybe just the first one just for clarification. I think when you're speaking about COVID impacts, you mentioned the strong order back in deliveries and mitigating, I guess, the first half twenty twenty two trading. Could you maybe clarify whether that's an offset or basically you haven't felt anything given the strong deliveries?
It's the reason I wasn't more specific there is because the length of lockdown will change the impacts over time. We know this from Victoria. The longer it goes, the tighter it gets. But so far, what we found is that the orders coming in have mitigated the delivery. So deliveries have continued to be solid during the time.
Deliveries have been in line with our available stock arrivals. And really, that's been a big key driver of revenue probably in the last 6 months that we've only been able to deliver what's arrived. So in the short term, Matt, it's clear that, yes, that mitigating factor has been very, very strong. But as it goes longer and longer, the impacts may change. And I just don't know the answer.
Okay. Great. And then just to clarify again, did you say the order bank today is greater than what it was in May?
Yes, higher than May.
Okay. And then can you make any comment, I guess, from an order right versus delivery perspective in FY 'twenty two? Obviously, there was a lot of demand in June, maybe up 30%. How has that changed?
Yes. So overall for the 6 month period, we've had about a 10% differential between our order right and our delivery right. And that's equalizing that for customers that have had their purchases fall over.
Okay. Great. That's very helpful. And then maybe just on the property buybacks. Could you maybe provide a bit more detail around, I guess, the benefit in margin you get from, obviously, retiring the lease payments versus what your debt financing costs are?
Yes. So the average debt financing costs at the moment for those properties are around 2.8%. And what we've been doing is buying key sites. And as a consequence of them being key sites, they probably had pretty reasonable yields on them for the previous owners. Between 6% 7% has been the yields that they've had.
So in my slide at Slide, I think, 22, I gave you an idea of the leases that we retired on the last two acquisitions. Sorry, Slide 23. The old lease at Brighton Land Rover was $1,100,000 and the old lease at Bundoora BMW was $1,600,000 And you can see the costs and that $2,800,000 is the average cost you'll be able to work those numbers out.
Okay. Great. That's really good color. And then just the last one from me. I mean despite lockdowns, are you seeing any change in gross profit per vehicle during the lockdown period versus the past 6 months?
Yes. It's a good question. And I know there's a lot in the presentation, but one of the things that is true so far as well is that we've been able to maintain or grow gross profits during the last 2 months and gross profit margins. And that has been pleasing that we've been able to continue that growth.
Okay, great. Thanks for the questions.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Brendan Carrig with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen. Just maybe 2 additional questions from me. The first is just on the guidance that you provided or at least the result relative to the guidance. Maybe just could you flag what the factors were in those last sort of that last week that were contributing to the better than expected outcomes on both the revenue and the PBT line?
So what it's been is a high percentage of forward orders in new used vehicles coming through. And the longer if we've been if we're ordering them from the factory, we're generally ordering them with higher a higher margin. They're not being sold directly out of stock. The second part, Brendan, is that we've continued to maintain tight disciplines. And as you saw already, the first half of the second half of the year grew in gross margins.
So in our service and our parts business, we've continued to maintain our costs of sale very well during this period.
Yes. No, Nick, I just mean specifically in sort of the guidance you provided on, was it the 28th June, I think it might have been. Obviously, it was coming ahead of that and there wasn't very much time. So just in that very last small window, was there just a couple of extra orders that were collected more than what you're expecting? Or what was that last sort of factor in that last week or so?
Yes. Well, sorry, sorry, Bernie. It wasn't revenue because revenue was only up $200,000 on what we or $2,000,000 on what we said. It was on gross. So what we're so it was on better outcomes in gross.
Okay. That's
clear. And then just the other one. So obviously, the acquisitions sort of are coming through. Just maybe some comments on the opportunities in the nearer term and what lockdowns are potentially doing for that? Is that increasing the available opportunities out there because there is some dealerships that potentially just don't want to go through another round of lockdowns and they're a happier seller?
Or conversely, are you finding it that the uncertainties may be going to make it a bit more difficult over the next 3 to 4 months?
Yes. I'm more comfortable talking backwards about what happened last year, Brendan here. And what you're suggesting did happen in Victoria last year as the lockdown extended the environment for acquisition in lockdown markets improved for people who were well funded and could see their way through. And also people who had good geographic footprints and could have some business some parts of their revenue not locked down and some places locked down. So historically, yes, it did improve the acquisition environment.
And what I'm seeing at the moment is plenty of people who would like to talk to us. And I don't think I'm on my own there. I've listened to the other listed auto players. They're saying the same thing. We're talking to people, but whether their deals or whether their things that sit properly with our business, we'll see as we do the due diligence.
And then maybe just one final question. Just trying to get a sense of sort of the last, call it, yes, 6 to 8 weeks in New South Wales and the last month or so in Victoria versus where we were last year. But maybe ask me in the sense of the servicing and the parts business. So I guess can you give a sense of how that activity is going today versus last year while we're in lockdowns specifically in terms of like a percentage differential, just given that we obviously or you obviously are calling out that you've seen improvements in how you're able to do with the contactless and things like that. So I just would
you be
happy to get any commentary on that?
Not a lot, Brendan. I can talk July is easier to talk to because it's finished. And I know that, but we were less affected in July. The lockdown criteria was a little bit more open in the 1st 2 weeks. So what we saw through July was revenues that were in line with our expectations.
So we didn't see much of an impact in July. However, as we go along through this, I suspect we'll see a little bit more and more as people have tightened up restrictions through the period. So it's going to tighten up in terms of revenue production, but it's going to be better than the result that we saw in Victoria last year.
Okay. That's fair. I'll leave it there. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Sarah Mann with Moelis Australia. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Just a follow-up on that question about service before. So while July was kind of okay, it sounds like things are kind of tightening a bit into August. Just wondering, is there any kind of additional kind of cost mitigation strategies you can put in place there to kind of offset some of that lost income? And then obviously given that it's pretty, I presume, staff heavy.
Yes.
Yes. Just wondering maybe what percent you can kind of offset of that?
Yes. You've got the main mitigation there, Sarah. Approximately 58% of our total expenses are people related. And at the moment, as I said in my COVID slide, if we see revenue reductions, we do have the capacity at the moment to manage people's hours. And as we do that, we're able to go and drive down our major expense and mitigate any reductions in revenue pretty strongly, not 100%, because our fixed expenses stayed pretty static during the time.
But our variable expenses and some of our semi variable expenses can be mitigated quite strongly. And we've got some good processes behind that, again, driving from what we did in Victoria and what worked and what didn't last
year. Got it. Okay. And then just to clarify, sorry, I know this has been asked a couple of times, but in terms of the, I guess, the differential between where you're seeing demand and how that's translating to order intake? Like clearly, at the more luxury end, it sounds like is like kind of translating across.
But you did call out there are clearly some shoppers in the market who are interested but haven't converted to orders. Like can you talk about how that's flowing through?
We've got right at the moment, we've got record levels of what we would call watches in the marketplace. And they are people who are monitoring our stock, talking to our people, but not ready to buy until they've test driven account. And we can see this big bubble of that activity around because underlying demand is really strong. What we're also what we see in those specialist brands, particularly our super luxury brands, is that people are keen just to get themselves on the list and they're buying without holding. So we've got both things going on at the moment.
We've got a strong outcome from vehicles that are scarce and production is going to be scarce, but we've got this big reservoir of what we see as lookers. And that for us bodes well for a potential bounce post lockdown.
Got it. And just to clarify though that does mean that you're probably delivering more cars than the order intake in the same month in August. Does that make sense?
Yes. I'm not sure yet in August. So I don't want to call that just yet. But as the lockdown gets longer, that's more likely to be the case.
Okay. Cool. And then the last question, just another follow-up on the property rationalization strategy. Obviously, you've done a few and there's more underway. And then looking at your portfolio more broadly, are there any, I guess, other sites that you're looking at that you could either internalize or exit or kind of consolidate onto existing leases?
Yes. Look, we're looking at both outcomes. We've got a few sites or leases that we're looking to exit over the next 24 months. And there are some properties that we currently occupy that we do sit with options to purchase behind there and also last rights of refusal. And if those places do have some critical and strategic value for us when those opportunities do come up, we'll look at buying them.
It's but does need to have a critical value for us. We're not just doing this to get the leverage between buying and the lease.
Excellent. All right. Thanks very much. That's all my questions.
Thanks, Sarah.
Thank you. Your next question is a follow-up question from James Ferriero with Wilsons. Please go ahead.
Thanks, guys. The AASB 16 impact is bang on in line with the PCP at $5,200,000 Just given some of the movement in your property portfolio that's been asked about a bit on the call today, what's your anticipation for that PBT impact
in the year ahead all else equal?
It's difficult to give you an actual figure on the year ahead depending on what decisions we make through the year with acquiring properties and taking on additional leases with new acquisitions. But the movement, it should look to go down in the FY 'twenty one period. It hasn't because we've added leases with acquired businesses, which is our increased offsetting benefits that we got from converting the acquired businesses to owned.
Yes. Okay. So basically, that sort of natural downward trend is still what you would expect absent any activity? Correct. Yes.
Okay. And what's your expectations on the year ahead for the D and A and CapEx numbers,
please? So we've got 2 projects that are already in the pipe of the Sundara BMW property and the John Yeal Mazda business. Just normal CapEx would probably be around $5,000,000 to $6,000,000 for the year at the moment.
Yes. Over and above. Okay. Great. Thanks, Aaron.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Pageant for closing remarks.
Thank you, Zoe. I just wanted to close by taking the time to thank our staff for delivering this result during an uncertain year where at different times the business was locked down. The result is an outstanding result and it's your result. I'd like to thank our shareholders for their support during the year. I'd like to thank our OEM brand partners for their confidence and their support during also an uncertain year and of course our OEM financiers.
Thank you very much for joining us today and your interest in Autosports Group. Thank you very much.