Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Coast Entertainment Holdings Limited FY 2024 results conference call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. 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 2024 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 Young, and our Chief Financial Officer, José de Sacadura. I'll start by providing some preliminary remarks, and then I'll hand over to José and Greg to provide some further color. FY 2024 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 2023. 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 two 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 2016. Revenue for the year of AUD 87 million was also up 3.8% compared to the previous year, with a notable shift in ticketing mix in FY 2024 towards more annual passes. This has seen deferred revenue for the group increase to AUD 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 AUD 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 trends have continued into FY 2025, 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 2016.
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, with AUD 700,000 received in FY 2024 and a further AUD 1.6 million of progress payments received so far in FY 2025. 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 AUD 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 2025. The group remains well capitalized with a solid balance sheet, no debt, cash of AUD 89 million, and available tax losses of almost AUD 139 million at 25 June 2024.
As I've mentioned before, we see potential upside opportunities in our land holdings and are awaiting a decision from Gold Coast Council in relation to our preliminary DA application, which has now passed the public consultation phase. With that, I will now hand over to Jos é to take you through the group's financial results.
Thank you, Gary, and good morning to everyone joining us today. On slide four, we provide some further detail on the consolidated results for FY 2024. 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 AUD 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 parks during the year and the business cycling AUD 2.6 million of revenue arising from Queensland Government COVID stimulus programs in FY 2023.
We were particularly encouraged by the second half performance, which saw revenue of AUD 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 wet weather, which persisted throughout the second half. Also relevant, as Gary mentioned, is the change in sales mix towards more annual passes. Due to revenue for these passes being recognized over 12 months, we've seen the group's deferred revenue balance grow to AUD 12.1 million at June 2024, an increase of 12% over the prior period, with the increased pass holder base also helping drive return visitation and incremental in-park spend.
EBITDA for the theme parks and attractions business, excluding specific items, was AUD 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 AUD 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 AUD 4.6 million.
However, it's important to note that the statutory result was impacted by a number of one-off and non-cash 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 AUD 1.1 million, up 132% on the previous year, and its first positive EBITDA result for the continuing business since FY 2016. Net interest income of AUD 5.3 million is also up 18.8% on the prior period, reflecting investment 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 AUD 12.6 million recorded this year reflects the recognition of $8.6 million deferred consideration from the sale of Main Event .
Overall, the net impact of these items saw the group report a net profit after tax of AUD 2.6 million for the year, compared to AUD 664.7 million in the prior period. Noting, of course, that the FY 2023 results included a AUD 682 million one-off gain from the sale of Main Event. Moving now to slide five. As indicated earlier, the group's results for the year have been impacted by a number of one-off and non-cash 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 AUD 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 $8.6 million, of which $8.1 million was received in FY 2024. 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's 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 AUD 700,000 of insurance proceeds, which were received during the year in relation to the property damage. Now, further proceeds are expected in relation to both property damage and Business Interruption, but have not been recognized in the FY 2024 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've received another AUD 1.6 million of progress payments so far in FY 2025. Finally, the group's results include AUD 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 AUD 139 million of tax losses and almost AUD 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'll provide a little more color on the performance of the theme parks and attractions business.
Thanks, José. 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 six. 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 seven, 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 in this slide, because most is already 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've strengthened partnerships with local schools. We've expanded sponsorships for grassroots sports and creative initiatives, and I serve actively as a director on the Gold Coast Community Fund, a fund that does some remarkable work locally. We're also leaders in making our sites more accessible, particularly thanks to operations team led by Michelle Erasmus and Chantelle McLaughlin.
They've introduced some initiatives like the Hidden Disability 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 Wildcat Conservation Alliance. Moving to slide eight, in FY 2024 market 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 nine 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 and 3,000 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. José 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.
While 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, think we'll 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 2017, driven largely by our annual pass channel, which is now over 100% up on FY 2017. The 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 pass holder visitation and its implied mathematical pressure on yields, some tactical promotion activity, and some improving international visitation. We are very confident that the yield environment is structurally different to what it was back in FY 2017, and our focus remains on total revenue whilst maintaining higher per capita spends than pre FY 2017 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 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 area of the park under construction for Rivertown, the new kids' area and the Dreamworld Flyer contributed to improved 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 that point, trade was very strong. The properties were in fantastic condition right up until that event, with product ready to go, and we saw a 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, 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 the 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 is 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 to 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, while 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 four 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 projected 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 date-based dynamic pricing only two days ago, a 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 indisputably 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 attractions 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 maintained that commitment. Dreamworld and WhiteWater World outperformed competitors in Global Review Index scores and have done so continually since we started measuring these results. 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. 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 result to make guest-centric decisions throughout the organization. Moving over to slide 17 in 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. For those of you that have primary school-aged kids, I think you'll all be going through that usual process happens every year, late nights and last-minute costuming efforts for the book parade at school. 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 Week end and our Book Week end after-party tonight. Actually, starting tonight at our Dreamworld Night Markets, where families will get an opportunity to give that costume one 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 AUD 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'll 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, Murrissippi 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. Murrissippi 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 two vehicles designed for easy wheelchair access. The immersive theming and the innovative track layout make this a standout attraction, and we believe it'll be a surprise hit. And yes, we're preserving the best part, and 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 better cater to international groups, as well as supplement our event business. I know this is going to be one of the go-to spaces on the Gold Coast to host your unique gala dinner or your corporate team building evening. 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 it would have reinforced Dreamworld as the must-do destination for families in Australia. If we turn to slide 21, you can see some of the progress at Jungle Rush and the incredible quality of work that our artisans are delivering. On slide 22, you can see just how immense the structure is. Lastly, on slide 23, you can see 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 our performance as a result. Just last month, we completed a significant upgrade of our passenger lists, a project in progress since last year. The new lists, which replace our end-of-life assets, feature a state-of-the-art audiovisual 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 timeline 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 José has outlined, and we expect further compensation, particularly on the BI policy, in due course, 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 while 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 2023, 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 2024. Notably, this is the first time since FY 2017 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 pass holders, 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 2017, 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 land holdings. Our proprietary 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 while 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 José 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 costs for FY 2024 came in at $6.9 million. However, it's important to note that this includes $0.6 million of non-recurring and non-cash-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 2023.
The AUD 1.8 million in savings realized are largely as a result of the head office restructuring, a 50% reduction in direct fees, which took effect from August last year, as well as a meaningful reduction in insurance expenses. As the chart shows, despite AUD 1 million in savings in insurance costs in FY 2024, 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 AUD 0.8 million in a year. It should be noted that the level of corporate costs we are now seeing is the lowest in over a decade, with the exception only of the COVID impacted years, FY 2021 .
But for context, those COVID impacted 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 2025. 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 AUD 89 million, a reduction of AUD 52 million compared to 12 months ago.
This predominantly reflects AUD 48 million of capital expenditure payments, as well as AUD 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 AUD 9.5 million and development CapEx of AUD 38.8 million. The bulk of which relates to new rides and attractions, which 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 $500,000 expected to come through at the end of calendar 2024. Operating cash outflows for the year of AUD 3.5 million represented improvements of AUD 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 AUD 4 million in the 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 AUD 6.1 million, the group generated approximately AUD 2.6 million of positive cash flow from its operations, a marked improvement compared to the cash outflows of AUD 3.3 million in the prior year. Finally, turning to slide 29. As previously mentioned, the group has a solid balance sheet with cash on hand of AUD 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 2024, leaving 441 million shares on issue at the 25th of June 2024.
This program has continued into FY 2025, 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 2025 at a cost of AUD 3.1 million. So cumulatively, this now brings the buyback to AUD 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 AUD 24 million of this project remains to be funded in FY 2025.
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've 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 the group's land holdings, as well as the continuing economic uncertainty which still exists, we believe it 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, 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 main part of our presentation, and I will now open up the lines to Q&A.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Nicholas McGarrigle with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Thanks for that comprehensive presentation. The one of the key questions I had was around July, 'cause it seems that the year has started strongly. There seemed to be five weekends in the PCP and four weekends in this year's July. Have you made any adjustments to that, or is it, you'd normally, that kind of implies that maybe the results are a bit stronger, given you had less weekends in this year?
Morning, Nick. Yeah, look, you're right. I think even if we take that into consideration, the numbers are, and I'm sure José 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 one month and then thinking that's gonna make us a year. Look, 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, our deferred revenue balance going forward.
We also can point to very clearly these EBITDA accretive Snowy Nights events, and they did, you know, and I'm not gonna go into the detail as to individually what they, you know, 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 efficiency in the business, you know, and always without focusing on reducing any of our safety initiatives, which is obviously front of mind.
But Jos é , did you want to add anything further to that?
Yeah, just one point, Nick. Good morning. Sorry, we operate a retail reporting calendar, so that means that we have 13 weeks in every quarter. The first month of the quarter is five weeks, followed by two four-week months. So July is always a five-week month for us. So in fact, there have been five whole weeks, five weekends in both the prior July and the current July. So they are like for like in that respect.
Okay, thanks. 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?
Yeah, 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 it, the destination is, 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. You know, that's important for us because, again, the performance that we get out of annual pass is enduring. You know, 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, you know, at ad nauseam now, annual passes are the number one 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 repeat visitation to, you know, garner higher net yields out of annual pass holders than we otherwise would off a single day guest. 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, you know, 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's four objections. I can tell you, and I follow this very closely in the Gold Coast, as you would imagine, that a development with four objections to it is a pretty good day on the Gold Coast, to be frank. Look, two 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, you know, predicated on the notion of closing the theme park. That's not clearly our plan.
There are two 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 waiting to engage with stakeholders at council, and again, you know, 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 once all the projects are completed?
No, we've already seen, you know, some good performance. Again, the second half, and I don't want to talk about the weather anymore, to be frank, I've had enough of it. But, you know, the second half result was, you know, 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 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 visitors, visitation we're getting, we're certainly seeing that. Will it change a whole lot with Rivertown? Look, I just think that we're gonna get a lot more. You know, Rivertown is largely in a very similar space. To be fair, it probably plays a little bit older.
You know, if you think about Dreamland and, you know, The Wiggles and things like that, they are kind of younger demographics, where Rivertown is slightly older, but still very much, you know, 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, you know, funnily enough, kids are fickle, they grow, and they move through these cycles pretty quickly. And so we wanna have a really great, high quality, professional kids area, but we wanna 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 only got about 6% remaining. Is there any intention to consider, you know, a 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?
Yeah, I might let José handle that one first, and I'll add any color if need be.
Yeah. Hi, Nick. In terms of the buyback, yeah, 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 set 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 you know 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 you know 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.
Yeah. And I think just to build on that from José, 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 are going through a process, and we're, you know, 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 crystallize the value of that land? Look, it's on our minds.
It would be, you know, 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 with the land, at the right time.
Again, you know, once we have our approvals through, well, then we can contemplate all the different things that we would like to do with the land. Obviously, our focus is to make sure that whatever we do is, you know, highly, you know, contributory and additive to the experience and the amenity of the Northern Gold Coast. That's exactly how we're thinking about it.
All right, great. I'll let some other people ask questions. Thanks.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one. Your next question comes from Brian Han with Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi. 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?
Yeah, more of the latter, Brian. Look, our marketing spend, though, is you know, largely in line year-on-year, if I could put it that way. You know, 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 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, you know, 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, you know, particularly diluting a headline price, well, then we're w e'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 2017, and I only see upside in that for a few different reasons.
I think the first thing is that, you know, this economy situation is what it is now, and we've said, you know, 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 as 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 Theme Parks in terms of visitors and guest experience? And if so, how was that relative performance in the last six months?
Yeah, look, Brian, to be frankly, though, 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 of 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 and away 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 into give us a GRI score. And to be honest with you, Brian, like, 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 dark art. I know, I know a little bit about dark art, I'm in equity research. So, my last question is, can you talk about the maintenance CapEx outlook, given the, the upgrades to be done for the older rides that Jos é was talking about?
Yeah, look, I'll give you a w ell, maybe, José, 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.
Yep. Maintenance CapEx, sort of historically, has tended to range between AUD 5 million and AUD 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. So for the last couple of years, we've been sort of more at the upper end of that range, more around to the AUD 10 million and similar to what you've seen in FY 2024, on the cash flow slide. Going forward, you know, in the past, we've sort of said that, you know, from FY 2024, 2025 onwards, we saw ourselves sort of coming down, 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 stuff, some of those damaged assets, albeit that we will see insurance, you know, 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, you know, 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, you know, after the next twelve months coming back down towards that middle of that AUD 5 million-AUD 10 million a year range. Greg, is there anything further for you to add?
Yeah, I'd just say on top of all that, if we think about the fleet, you know, one of our foundational pieces of strategy around safety has been closing attractions that we didn't feel fit the risk or upside of the organization. I think the board has been very clear with us that, you know, 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 then 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 Jos é 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 two 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 on our minds. It certainly is, and it's, you know, I think we've been pretty clear around that strategy. As to the timelines and things like that, well, that's, you know, 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.
Okay. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Allan Franklin with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Yeah, morning, all, Gary, Greg, José. And good to see the, yeah, some of the sort of EBITDA anecdotes coming through the second half, and the uptick there. Just interested in sort of stepping into the cost base in a bit more detail, just in terms of how some of these, 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 sort of 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 sort of services.
Is there anything you can sort of help or sort of peel back in terms of, yeah, I guess, the extent to which the core events have moved the dial?
Yep. No, good question, and, morning. 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 nodding furiously in agreement in that regard, so when we do these, they're really about, you know, 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, 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, so if we're going to add a night, we are running the numbers to make sure that that's gonna make sense to us or not. I think the other thing I'd say is things like the Snowy Nights 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? 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. You know, things like the Fun Run are probably the exception to the norm. But a lot of the time, you know, it's really about trying to extract value off already sunk cost.
Yeah, do you wanna maybe-- Yeah .
Alan, I was just gonna add a little bit to that. You made an observation at the end of your last question around sale of goods revenue. Sale of goods growing by more than the services. And that's, you know, partly a function of the fact that, as we mentioned, there's been a shift in ticketing 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.
Yeah, correct. No, that's fair. And just on the promotional activity, just a bit of extra color, please, if you can just sort of 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 one- and three-day passes as well. Just the extent to which, yeah, or the frequency to which you're in the market, and with the new rides coming through in December 2024 or thereabouts, to what extent will you be reviewing pricing at that point to try and,
Yep.
I guess, capture and, or capture some of that capital back?
Yeah, 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, you know, 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 into particular, you know, 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. You know, 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've put all this capital in, when this product opens, and until that is some time away, you know, you can expect that we would think that it's appropriate to change pricing in that regard, commensurately.
Helpful. Thanks.
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.