Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Ardent Leisure Group FY 2023 financial results call. All participants are in 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. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining the call today. I'm Gary Weiss, Chairman of Ardent Leisure. I'm joined on the call today by Greg Yong, who's up on the Gold Coast at Dreamworld, and together with me in the office is Jose de Sacadura, our Chief Financial Officer, and Chris Todd, our Group Counsel and Company Secretary. In relation to FY 2023, I just want to call out a few highlights. A consolidated NPAT of AUD 665 million, driven by a gain of AUD 682 million on the sale of Main Event Entertainment.
Secondly, to identify and point out the improved performance of our remaining theme parks and attractions business, with operating revenue up 70% on prior year and 25% higher than FY 2019 pre-COVID levels, and positive EBITDA of AUD 4.7 million. This is the first positive EBITDA result since FY 2016 and up 131% on FY 2022, and 147% on FY 2019 pre-COVID levels. Highlight the solid financial position at year-end, cash of AUD 141 million, no debt, and full ownership of our substantial real estate holdings at Coomera. I'm pleased to report that this positive performance is continuing into this financial year.
Greg will comment further on this shortly, but just to note that operating revenue for July 2023 up 14.4% on prior period, the highest since July 2016. Total ticket sales for the month were the highest since July 2016. EBITDA for July was up 101.7% on prior period, again, the highest since July 2016. SkyPoint EBITDA results for the month was the best on record. All of this was achieved despite the relative lack of international visitation. Just to touch on a few other items of significance. As announced to the ASX yesterday, there has been a resolution of the class action, subject to final court approval, without admission of liability, with Ardent contributing approximately AUD 4 million to the settlement.
This will conclude the last outstanding legacy issue arising from the 2016 tragedy at Dreamworld. Secondly, as previously announced, management has been working with stakeholders to achieve a preliminary development approval across our entire 55 hectare site at Coomera. Greg will speak to this shortly, but just to observe that the grant of approval would provide significant optionality and planning certainty for the group. Finally, due to the improved performance of the business, we have determined that a portion of our cash bAlances are surplus to near-term needs, and so we have today announced a 10% buyback over the next 12 months. We have also stated that further capital management initiatives will be reviewed, depending upon the ongoing performance of the group and funding requirements moving forward. So with those introductory remarks, I'll now pass over to Jose.
Thank you, Gary. Good morning, and welcome to everyone joining us today. Over the next few slides, I'll provide a brief overview of the group's results for the year, starting with slide three. FY 2023 has marked another significant year for Ardent Leisure, with the group achieving some important milestones. As Gary mentioned, at the start of the year, the group completed its sale of Main Event Entertainment, recording a gain on disposal of AUD 682 million. This transaction unlocked substantial value for shareholders, enabling the group to fully extinguish all debt facilities and return AUD 456 million to shareholders. As Gary mentioned, the group also saw improvement in the trading performance of its theme parks and attractions business.
Together, these led to the group reporting a consolidated net profit after tax of AUD 664.7 million, a material improvement compared to the loss of AUD 97 million reported in FY 2022. In the theme parks business, revenue of AUD 83.9 million was up AUD 34 million, or 70% on prior year, and was 25% above FY 2019 pre-COVID levels. This was the highest revenue recorded in over six years, with the improved performance being driven by an uplift in visitation of 38.6% and a 48.5% increase in ticket sales, arising from increased volumes and material growth in revenue per capita, which was 54% higher than FY 2016 levels. The improved performance is reflective of Dreamworld returning to positive operating results as its capital improvement program progressively comes online.
Theme parks EBITDA, excluding specific items, was AUD 4.7 million for the year. An improvement, as Gary mentioned, of 131% on prior year, and 147% ahead of pre-COVID levels. Pleasingly, this result also marks a return to profitability for the business, and represents the best EBITDA performance since FY 2016. Subsequent to year-end, the group yesterday announced that it has reached agreement to settle the shareholder class action, which commenced in June 2020. This remains subject to court approval, and further details can be found in yesterday's announcement. So the group is now well capitalized to fund its future growth and to drive increased shareholder value.
With AUD 141 million of cash and no debt, the group has a solid financial position, but recognizes the importance of prudent capital management, given some of the economic uncertainties, as well as opportunities which lie ahead. However, having regard to the group's improved operating performance, the board has determined that a portion of the cash is surplus to the near-term needs of the group, and has announced that it intends to undertake an on-market share buyback, share buyback of up to 10% of shares over the next twelve months, as Gary mentioned. Turning to Slide four, we provide some more detail on the result for FY 2023. As noted, the theme parks and attraction business has shown a solid recovery in performance during the year.
The business has seen continuous attendance and revenue growth since the second half of FY 2022, and this trend has continued through FY 2023. Operating revenue of AUD 83.9 million was up 70% compared to FY 2022 revenue of AUD 49.5 million. As mentioned, this growth was driven by increased ticket sales, visitation, and yield, despite international visitation remaining well below historical levels and against the backdrop of high inflation and aggressive interest rate rises, which have impacted consumer discretionary spending in recent months. Statutory EBITDA for the theme parks business of AUD 3.1 million was up 121% on prior year. This includes the impact of some specific items, which I'll cover shortly. Excluding these items, theme parks EBITDA was AUD 4.7 million, an improvement of 131% on prior year.
The large uplift reflects the high flow-through of incremental revenue due to greater leverage of our fixed cost base and our ongoing focus on operational efficiency and cost discipline. As mentioned, this pleasingly marks a return to profitability for the business and its best EBITDA results since FY 2016. The group's corporate costs continue to be an area of focus, and despite some emerging inflationary cost pressures, have recorded a slight decrease compared to prior year. I'll be providing some further color on these costs later in the presentation. After corporate costs, the group recorded an EBITDA loss from continuing operations of AUD 4.8 million, an improvement of AUD 50.6 million, or 91%, compared to the prior year.
Excluding specific items, the EBITDA loss from continuing operations is slightly better at AUD 3.4 million, representing an improvement of almost AUD 20 million or 85% versus the prior year. Further segmentation of the results between continuing and discontinuing operations can be found in Appendix 1 of this presentation. Moving now to Slide five. As indicated earlier, the group's result this year has been impacted by several one-off specific items, and here we provide further detail regarding these items. Firstly, the net results of the group include the gain of AUD 682 million from the sale of Main Event. Further details in relation to this gain are disclosed in Note 30 to the financial statements.
However, it's worth noting that this gain excludes AUD 7.3 million of sale costs, which were incurred and captured in the group's FY 2022 result, as well as Ardent's share of additional deferred and contingent consideration of around $8.8 million. This consideration will be received as and when Main Event tax losses are utilized by Dave & Buster's in the future. The group's result has also been impacted by AUD 1.3 million of Dreamworld incident-related costs, net of insurance recoveries, which are largely associated with the shareholder class action. As mentioned, the group has recently reached agreement to settle this matter, and the residual cost of settlement will be reflected in the FY 2024 financial results.
Lastly, the group's results have been impacted by a $9.3 million non-cash tax expense, and this is largely associated with the reversal of some deferred tax assets, which were recorded in the prior year in relation to hedging of the Main Event sale proceeds. Also, the result includes $2.5 million of non-cash tax expense in relation to further tax losses, which have not been recognized as a deferred tax asset. A further breakdown of the specific items by segment is provided in Appendix 2 of this presentation. Turning now to Slide six. Here, we provide an overview of the group's bAlance sheet as at the bAlance date, and a summary of the opportunities which exist for the group to unlock future value for shareholders.
At the 27th of June, the group holds AUD 141 million of cash, is debt-free, and owns fully unencumbered real estate. Consolidated net assets of the group of AUD 254.6 million are materially higher than the AUD 63.7 million reported at the end of FY 2022. Compared to 12 months ago, the group is now much simplified but significantly strengthened, with a solid financial base from which to grow. As Greg will talk to you shortly, the business is highly focused on delivering a differentiated and compelling guest experience.
Work is progressing to deliver a pipeline of new and exciting rides and attractions, which will strengthen the business's market position and help drive growth back to historical earnings and beyond. As noted in previous presentations, the group's accounts currently record Dreamworld and SkyPoint assets at historic cost, net of depreciation and impairments. Back in June 2016, the fair value of these assets was approximately AUD 275 million, well above the current book value of AUD 130 million. So clearly, with sustained improvement and growth in the business, the potential to unlock significant value is there, and includes the ability to surpass historical values with further complementary developments and enhancements in the value of the group's land holdings.
Additionally, the accounts exclude AUD 53.7 million of deferred tax assets relating to Australian tax losses of almost 131 million dollars and tax-deductible temporary differences of 44.8 million dollars. These are of considerable value to the group, as despite the accounting treatment, they remain available for future use by the group when it returns to a positive taxable position, and could provide tax shields for the group for several years to come. And finally, as previously stated, the group has yet to recognize its share of the further deferred and contingent consideration from the sale of Main Event, amounting to U.S. $8.8 million. As mentioned, this consideration will be received as and when Main Event tax losses are utilized by Dave & Buster's, which we believe will start to occur towards the end of this calendar year.
The board and management recognize the potential which exists to materially increase the group's net assets, well beyond what's reflected on the bAlance sheet, and are highly focused on driving business performance and initiatives which will unlock this future value for shareholders. I'll now hand over to Greg, who will walk you through the performance of the theme parks and attractions business.
Thanks, Jose, and good morning to everyone. Yesterday, Alan Joyce said that Qantas survey data shows that people are planning to spend more on travel over the next six months and less on homewares, renovations, and even alcohol. While that survey is focused on the next six months, we believe that it is illustrative of the macro behavior that we're seeing in general. In essence, people are looking to spend more money on experiences and less on material things. In a moment, I'm going to provide a more detailed overview of the theme parks and attraction results for the last financial year. Secondly, I'm going to take you through what we see as the key revenue drivers over the next 18 months or so. Third, I'll provide an update on our ongoing work pertaining to our land holdings. Lastly, I'll briefly reiterate our thinking on strategy.
We've obviously got a lot to get through, so let me dive in, and I'll allow adequate, adequate time at the end for questions. Turning to slide eight. FY 2023 has been another year of significant progress for the group. Safety remains our top priority, and I'm pleased to report that we were the first business in Queensland to be issued with major amusement park licenses under new government regulations. Once again, our aquatics team achieved the best possible scores in their safety audits, which are completed without any advance notice and completely independently by the same firm that audits major institutions such as Disney globally.
We've also continued to execute on initiatives across the organization to drive new revenue and enhance the guest experience, be it new events, major refurbishments on existing attractions, or opening elements of newly announced capital on time and on budget, despite a very challenging construction environment. All of this is clearly resonating with our guests, and I'll take you through our most recent guest scores later in today's presentation. Importantly, the business achieved its first operating EBITDA in six years, and this is slightly ahead of our internal forecast, but an important milestone nonetheless. I do stress that our focus remains on returning this business to a sustainable EBITDA and beyond over the coming years. Slide nine illustrates our financial highlights. It's particularly pleasing to see growth in admissions metrics, despite international attendance still at a fraction of what we were enjoying prior to the pandemic.
Per capita spending continues to grow, and the byproduct of this, and increased attendance, is headline revenue growth of near 70% for the year. While the gains in spend, spend per head are pleasing, we're supported by the tailwind of lower than typical international attendance, and as we've remarked in earlier presentations, we anticipate a softening of yields as that attendance returns. It's also notable that we've been able to achieve such significant increases in spend with no negative impact on guest sentiment, and that's a feat that has not been replicated in many consumer discretionary businesses. I think this is another interesting data point which exemplifies what I've mentioned previously, and that is our, our aim to provide a higher quality guest experience than we have in the past, but still at great value to our guests. On Slide 10, the statutory results have been outlined.
As mentioned, revenue grew by 70%, and while expenditure increased, this spend was driven by economic activity. For instance, cost of goods sold was up over 40% as a result of much higher sales than the prior period. Our ratios, though, and these are a clear indicator of operating performance, are superior to the prior year in every instance, be it commercial COGS or total expenditure when compared to revenue or attendance uplifts. As with every Australian business, there are clear inflationary factors that are contributing to expense pressure. However, I remain confident that our proprietary culture affords us strong cost discipline, but never at the detriment of safety. Additionally, diseconomies of scale still exist in the business, particularly in the weekday segment, which was previously supported by international visitation, and we expect this will continue to improve as attendance and revenues grow.
While attendance increased by almost 40%, international attendance is still a fraction of what it was prior to COVID, with Dreamworld international visits at less than 2% of total attendance, compared to around 20% of past performance. SkyPoint international attendance is soaring somewhat better, given it is a true must-do for a Gold Coast visitor. But I must say that our international numbers at SkyPoint are still immaterial compared to the prior performance period. Segment EBITDA, as we've outlined already, excluding specific items, was up over 130% on the prior year. Turning to slide 11, and I think it's helpful to contemplate this result in context of previous years.... Operating revenue was, for the last year, the highest since FY 2016, despite the international attendance challenges we've outlined today. Ticket sales were the highest since FY 2016.
Revenue per capita is now over 50% higher than what we were seeing back in FY 2016. In park per capita spending is 60% higher than FY 2016, and now the highest per cap spend that we have on record. As we've already said, operating EBITDA was up over 100% for the prior year and far and away the best result since FY 2016. As we've outlined earlier today, July performance has been very strong, with revenue up on the prior year, and again, the highest revenue since FY 2016. Ticket sales grew on July last year, and notably last July was up 130% on the year prior. These ticket sales are the highest July result that we've seen since 2016 as well.
And while we're still trading through August, I can say that the month-to-date ticket sales at this time are significantly higher than what we saw in July's increase. Another telling insight is our performance at SkyPoint, with the business achieving the highest July EBITDA on record, despite again, having a fraction of international visitation from pre-pandemic numbers. This clearly augurs well for SkyPoint and moreover, for Dreamworld over the coming years. And while I stress that it is unreasonable to use this number to project how we think about the year going forward, one month does not make us the year. Our July consolidated EBITDA result was more than twice what we saw in July last year, and this provides us with a very good base as we move into September and that critical holiday period.
Going to slide 12, and as I've articulated in earlier presentations, we have a clear plan on how we're going to grow revenue in this business. That plan is founded upon being brilliant at basics, agile sales and marketing, a product master plan incorporating a world-class event calendar, as well as significant new attractions, and lastly, our ancillary development program. We are making solid progress in each of these areas, and on this slide, you can see just how successful our event program has become, with a robust calendar of events over the course of the year, from our Street Food Festival to Winterfest, Spring Country Fair , and Happy Halloween, as well as some other events like our Fun Run, which was recently held here at Dreamworld.
Prior to 2019, we had none of this product in the pipe, and we are now starting to realize appreciable value from this strategy, with each event scoring record attributable revenue and Net Promoter Score growth. From a sales and marketing perspective, we continue to look for innovative new approaches to complement our seasonal campaign work. On the 30th of August, we launched Dreamworld's 40-day giveaway. This will be a unique campaign with a major prize worth over AUD 100,000 and daily cash prizes of up to AUD 1,000 per day. Every entry and every dollar spent in the park increases your chances of winning, and we expect it to drive new ticket sales, increase for park revenues, and repeat visitations throughout the promotion.
I want to stress that this promotion is actively and aimed squarely at our heartland, aspirational, working families, and I'm very confident that it'll be a tremendous success. We've got further news to come on the marketing front, and that will all be out how we're capitalizing on the strong work that we're doing, both in terms of differentiated product and our guest experience, and I'll talk about that later on this year. Going to slide 13, and as I've said before, strategy is important, but our ability to execute is critical. In November last year, we announced the pipeline of attractions that take the business on an exciting journey through to the end of calendar 2024.
We're not even a year from that announcement, and we've already delivered on first phase one of our new Kids Land, with the new Dreamworld Theatre , Belinda's Treehouse, Big Red Planes, our Parents Centre , Kenny's Forest Flyer, the Serpent Slayer ride, and Bananas in Pyjamas Mazes and Carousel is now open. Based on what I'm seeing and hearing in the construction industry at the moment, I cannot overstate what an achievement it is to be on schedule, given all of the work underway, both at Dreamworld and moreover, in Southeast Queensland. On this and the following slides, we've shown both our initial concepts and these areas in the completed state, again, demonstrating our ability to deliver these ideas and bring them to life in a timely fashion.
On slide 14, you can see our new Wiggles Big Red Plane attraction, and we look forward to opening the Big Red Boats Kids Coaster in time for Christmas. We are so proud to be working with such a parochial Australian brand, and The Wiggles themselves, they're just great people and are simply perfect in their, in terms of fit for Dreamworld. Belinda's Treehouse looks great and is doing tremendously well. In fact, it's the most popular attraction now in our kids' area. Lastly, you can see one of two of our Bananas in Pyjamas attractions, the new carousel, which we opened in time for Easter earlier this year. Once again, we are very pleased to be working with the ABC, and ABC Kids specifically, on bringing Bananas and their other loved brands like Play School, to life right here at Dreamworld.
On slide 15, we've shared some images of our new parent center, and you might be wondering why I keep harping on about this, but there are a few reasons. Firstly, if any of you on the call have young children, you'll immediately appreciate how important having world-class facilities like this mean for families. Secondly, I've been to a lot of theme parks in my time around the world. I can confidently tell you this is the best rendition of a parent space that I've seen at any park globally. And lastly, in social media and in our guest feedback sessions, which I attend personally, these areas are getting rave reviews from parents consistently, and in many cases, the reason guests have chosen to renew a pass with us. You can also see an image there of our brand new Dreamworld Theatre.
This space was used previously once a day for a 15-minute show, and sat idle for the rest of the time. Our rejuvenation here takes us from having multiple arenas around the park to one professional space that gets used over and over, day and night. Be it for a Wiggly Friends show, a Kenny's and Belinda's show, LEGO Masters guest experiences, or even comedy sets during our night markets. On slide 16, you'll get an appreciation of what is absorbing the team here at the moment, and that is the delivery of our Ocean Parade extension for the September school holidays. I'm pleased to say that this is also well on schedule. This area includes an all-new zero-depth splash pad with a ton of great theming and interactive characters, as well as a reimagined Deep Sea Dodgems attraction....
This, coupled with the final stages of our kids area, which is due to be delivered by Christmas, will round out a very impressive family offering, with plenty to do for kids of all ages. We're also ahead of schedule on the all-new Dreamworld Flyer, which is slated to open later this year. This attraction is situated right at the front of the park and will bring fantastic kinetic energy to guests when they first arrive. The ride will have great capacity with 64 seats, be a show in and of itself with a spectacular integrated fountain display, and over 3,000 individual lights adorning the structure. I'm very confident the Dreamworld Flyer will be an incredible attraction to operate both for the day trade, and given its proximity, we intend to operate it during the night markets on Friday and Saturday nights.
Our annual pass holders will love getting a different experience at night, and non-pass holders will have the opportunity to buy tickets to ride during the night markets, creating another additional revenue stream. Let's now move to slide 17. As the title suggests, we are very enthusiastic about the development of our Rivertown land, including a brand new Murrissippi Motors attraction and the new Jungle Rush family coaster, which will represent the largest single attraction investment in Dreamworld's history. The work going into the design development for this area is at an incredibly high standard, and while theme park executives the world over love to use phrases like world-class and highly immersive, I'm very confident that this will be all of those things.
Once again, we've been consistent with our promise to work with manufacturers of the highest quality, and we believe that Vekoma is a great fit for this attraction, having recently built the Tron Lightcycle Power Run coasters at Disney Parks, along with a host of other attractions internationally. In addition, our model to take proven designs as the baseline for our rides and then add unique elements that plus up the experience has been employed. We did this with Steel Taipan, and we're doing it again for Jungle Rush. The train carriages, for instance, are a known entity with a proven history of safe and reliable performance. While we're adding a bespoke switch track mechanism, which will take the experience to a whole new level. Importantly, we're not only working on new development, but continuing to bolster the remainder of the property as well.
In the last 12 months, we've opened the all-new Dreamworld Express train with state-of-the-art rolling stock, designed to allow wheelchairs to roll onto any carriage, as well as a host of additional safety features. We've also recently completed a multimillion-dollar refurbishment of the Giant Drop, a beacon for the park, and now with a significant extension to its service life. So as you can see, we have a plethora of new attractions coming to life over the next short while, and I could talk for several hours and show you all the great things that we're doing, but there's obviously no time for this today. What we do know is, we know why people are coming to our properties.
It is fundamentally about high quality and compelling product, and I'm extremely confident that the attraction selection and the creative execution that we're doing today is right, and we feel absolutely great about the newness that we're bringing into the business. So let's move to slide 18 and a conversation on our land holdings. First of all, I thought it was prudent to remind you of the strategic benefits of our location as it stands today. Our site has very close connections to major transport infrastructure, certainly the M1, but critically, heavy rail, and importantly, close proximity to the AUD 4 billion Coomera Connector, where works have recently commenced. Coomera is the epicenter of growth in Southeast Queensland.
So much so that the state government has recently designated Coomera specifically as an expansion area in their regional growth plan, with clear objectives to provide additional housing supply and associated infrastructure through to 2046. This clearly presents growth opportunities for us as a core business, but importantly, provides some insight around opportunities for incremental value creation from our land itself. On slide 19, I want to make two points. Firstly, we're clearly not alone in terms of holders that recognize the development opportunities that are available to us in this area. I've highlighted just some of the infill developments that have been completed or are underway in very close proximity to our site. Secondly, I think it is important to note the credibility of the organizations behind these projects.
Namely, the state government was spending over AUD 1 billion, literally minutes from our park, and more recently, organizations like Costco, who have just opened a 14,000 sq m Costco warehouse within 800 meters of our land. Both organizations do substantive and sophisticated due diligence prior to selecting sites. Lastly, on the image provided, you'll note that we have segregated our site into four conceptual areas, and I'll discuss these on the next slide. On slide 20, we provide an update of the state of our land today and the process that we are undertaking with relevant authorities to prepare the site for the future. As it stands, the property is essentially encompassed by two planning zones: open space and a major tourism precinct.
The open space zoning is quite restrictive, and while less restrictive, the major tourism area constrains us to development activities that are specifically theme park-related. Things like new attractions or new rides and associated infrastructure, like shops or food outlets. There are some opportunities for short stay accommodation, and we are actively considering initiatives which can be considered in the near term under the current zoning rules. As that work continues, we'll continue to update stakeholders accordingly, but unfortunately, any higher density accommodation is not currently feasible under the current zoning. Ardent has for some time been working on a process for various uses, in essence, allowing us to confidently contemplate other land uses that are not possible under the existing planning scheme.
It is our intention to apply for a broad range of possible uses to provide maximum flexibility over the entire site and in order for us to achieve the highest and best use for our holding. These uses are intended to be segregated into the precincts that we've outlined and may include, but I stress, are not limited to residential, commercial, and mixed-use developments. In all cases, we will ensure that opportunities for surrounding development are not opportunistic, but strategically complementary to the core business, be it adding additional footfall, providing additional ancillary revenue streams, or providing cash from a transaction as a result of divestment. The methods in which we intend to crystallize value will come once we resolve our application and consider the uses approved. As outlined in the presentation, we anticipate a decision on our application to be resolved by mid-2024.
Turning to slide 21 and the Dreamworld difference. Clearly, I'm energized by the amount of work we're doing at the moment throughout the organization and the impact of all of that work as it comes online. But what matters more is how our guests are feeling about what we're doing, and on this slide, we provide some quantitative feedback around exactly that. Firstly, our NPS scores continue to grow year on year, and this is despite what we knew to be a tough period with all the construction work happening in the park, in the parks. Our team has done an outstanding job to stay on schedule while delivering a very reduced impact experience to our guests as a result of this construction. Most telling, however, is our global review index scores.
As a reminder, the index is an independent aggregation of external feedback, things like Google and TripAdvisor reviews. In my mind, there is no more accurate sentiment tracker than what people are willing to put into writing about their experience. In FY 2022, we led the Gold Coast theme park market, and I'm pleased to say that in FY 2023, it is more of the same, with our rating improving even further in an environment where others are declining. So not only are we leading, but the gap is widening. This is clear evidence that our strategy to be brilliant at the basics, things like the quality of our food and beverage offerings, our focus on attraction reliability, our ability to cater to increasing demand in peak holiday periods, along with very, very positive feedback on our new additions, is propelling us in the right direction.
We saw at Main Event that great guest satisfaction is a good leading indicator of future performance, and we are seeing that trend bear out in our business here. I'm tremendously proud of our entire team for the care and attention that they give to our guests each and every day. In closing, and moving to slide 22, FY 2023 was a milestone year for the group, with a return to operating profit for the first time since 2016. We remain mindful of the economic headwinds, which have been well reported, but also optimistic about our prospects as international visitation continues to improve, remembering that historically, it made up some 20% of attendance. Lastly, I'd like to reiterate our strategic pillars. Safety of our guests, our team, and our animals will always be the number one priority for the board, for management, and for our people.
I'm very proud of the work the entire team have done over the last several years to bring new levels of sophistication and rigor to our safety systems, not just in rides, but across the company. We remain focused on business transformation and the need to be efficient in what is a very difficult cost environment. As I always reiterate, safety investments will always override cost pressures. We have a strong culture here at Ardent. While other parts of our strategy can be imitated, our culture and our commitment to our guests is something very difficult to replicate. As I said before, having a strategy is one thing, having a culture of high performance in order to enliven that strategy is something altogether different. Lastly, we see revenue generation as a fundamental driver of value over the next few years.
We have a clear plan on how we intend to optimize this, with our focus on basics, our unique approach to sales and marketing, and our work around these ancillary opportunities, obviously pertaining to our land holdings, but just as importantly, continuing to grow our night market business, online retail businesses, among other things. More critical is our detailed product master plan. This time last year, I told you that we had a very advanced board-approved pipeline and that we're readying ourselves to make those announcements. We have made those announcements, we have made solid progress, and we continue to execute well, as shown by the work completed already this year.
With the opening of Rivertown, along with the other investments we've previously announced, our properties will be in the best shape they've been in decades, and in my opinion, a more optimized suite of assets than in the healthy years leading up to 2016. The good news is that our guests are already seeing this, and they are telling us quite clearly in their feedback. Finally, I'd like to again thank our entire Ardent team for their commitment and dedication over the last 12 months and into the future. I'll now hand back to Jose to discuss capital requirements and corporate costs.
Thanks, Greg. I'll now provide some detail regarding the group's capital management and corporate costs before opening up the lines for some Q&A. On Slide 24, we present a summary of the group's liquidity and cash flows for the year. As you can see, the group moved from a net debt position, net debt position of AUD 153 million in June 2022, to a net cash position of AUD 141 million at the end of FY 2023. This largely reflects the receipt of Main Event sale proceeds, net of selling costs, cash disposed, and settlement of related hedging contracts, together amounting to $583.5 million, as well as the elimination of $197.6 million of US debt as part of this transaction.
The cash flow also includes the distribution to shareholders of AUD 456 million, and payment of amounts outstanding to the ATO of AUD 11 million in July 2022, following the sale. Operating cash outflows of AUD 6.7 million reflects the consolidated EBITDA performance of the group for the year, combined with a slight increase in working capital due to higher trading volumes. The group also made capital expenditure payments of AUD 17.5 million during the year. And this relates to a combination of both scheduled maintenance CapEx, as well as some early expenditure in respect to the pipeline of announced new rides and attractions, which are currently in development at Dreamworld. Turning to Slide 25.
Here, we present a summary of the group's cash on hand and how we think about this in terms of capital management of the group over the next 24 months. As previously announced, the group has a pipeline of exciting new rides and attractions to be delivered over the next two years. This significant investment is an important component of the group's strategy for driving performance of the business back to and beyond historic levels. While some preliminary expenditure on this has occurred in FY 2023, the significant component is yet to be funded and is expected to come through in FY 2024 and the first half of FY 2025.
In addition, the group expects to incur costs around AUD 10 million in respect of its annual maintenance CapEx program in FY 2024, as well as a one-off payment for its portion of the shareholder class action settlement costs. In the previous slides, Greg has outlined some of the opportunities which exist to unlock further value in the group's landholdings. So having regard to all of these items and the current economic environment, we think it's important to continue maintaining our strong bAlance sheet, and we consider it prudent to retain sufficient cash to provide headroom for both the group's operating and capital requirements, as well as to afford the group with flexibility and financial capacity to pursue some of the future growth opportunities which we've outlined.
Rest assured that before we invest in capital projects, we undertake a rigorous evaluation process, which includes consideration of many factors, including safety, product mix, capacity, guest experience, lifetime cost of ownership, and overall contribution to the financial performance of the group. Notwithstanding what I've just mentioned, having regard to the group's improved performance, the board does recognize that we currently hold a portion of cash, which is surplus to net term needs. As we've announced today, we intend to undertake an on-market share buyback of up to 10% of shares currently on issue over the next twelve months.
Of course, liquidity and funding priorities for remaining cash, including the additional receipt of deferred and continuing consideration from the sale of Main Event, will continue to be evaluated on an ongoing basis to ensure the group's funds are utilized to provide the highest available return to shareholders. Slide 26 provides a high-level overview of the group's corporate costs. These costs remain an area of focus for management and, despite some upward pressures driven by the current high inflation environment, have marginally decreased compared to the prior year. As the chart shows, insurance costs have reduced by AUD 0.7 million during the year, following a slight reset in premiums post the Main Event sale. Despite this reduction, insurance continues to remain significant and continues to account for around half of the group's total corporate costs.
So to provide some further perspective on this, the FY 2023 insurance costs are around 10 times higher than what they were back in in FY 2017, despite the group having more businesses back then. Excluding insurance, the cost base now sits at around AUD 4.2 million, and this amount includes director employee costs and other corporate overheads associated with being an ASX-listed group. So for example, ASX fees, registry fees, investor communications costs, and audit, tax, consulting, and travel expenses. Although the current inflationary environment has created some additional cost pressures, management have been working hard to find offsetting cost savings, and we remain focused on carefully managing these costs and continuing to drive efficiencies wherever possible.
While we have achieved material reductions in the corporate overhead over the last six years, we expect to realize further additional savings in FY 2024 to reflect the smaller size of the group following the sale of Main Event. This will come through a number of initiatives, which include a corporate head office restructure, which is currently underway, a reduction in board fees, and further reduction of the insurance costs. 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 your handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Alan Franklin with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Morning, Gary, Greg. Thank you for your time, and yeah, great to see a couple of additional, additional disclosures today. I wouldn't mind just going down a little bit of a rabbit hole around how you're activating the markets at the moment, please. It does look like you have had sort of multiple, I guess, discount offers on your website. There is one currently out there on the buy three, get one free for Locals Pass , which you did have in place at a point in time over second half 2023. Yeah, just interested in, I guess, the exact cohorts you're looking to target there, and if that's just looking for share gains. And I guess the recurrence of that particular buy three, get one free.
I assume you're bringing it back because of previous successes.
Yeah. Good morning, Alan. You know, I hope that's right. We've got that promotion out in market at the moment in very specific areas. Our view is still, and we continue to have the view, that we will continue to increase price, commensurate with product, but we've always said that we'll reserve the right to use promotional activity where it makes sense for us. And it is very much about targeting specific ticket types and moreover, targeting very specific market, geographic markets as well. And so that promotion we're running at the moment, as you say, has been successful for us in the past. And hence we're looking at it at the moment, in, in the local market. As I've outlined a number of times, annual passes for us are one of the most critical markets for us.
It's the most critical pass we sell. Obviously, it's the highest face value ticket we sell, but moreover, we get the benefit of recurring revenues going forward as well. And so as I say, we will do those things where we think they're necessary. They are very targeted, ring-fenced, and we obviously do them for the right reasons. And importantly, what we're looking at across the board is that our net ticket yields continue to grow, to grow. And so even if we have these promotions in market, we are very strategic about our mix. And what we're looking at, at the end of all of that, is to make sure that despite putting promotions out where they make sense, that our ticketing yield mix continues to be up on prior years. And so that's our focus.
Yeah, no, perfect. I guess that was, that was gonna be my, my sort of follow on, any impact on, on per capita spend? Or I guess maybe just eyeballing what you sort of put into the market, it does feel like per capita spend sort of, was down half and half in the second half. Anything to sort of call out there or, or, sort of, factors that are moving around in, in that per cap to help us understand how to think about the next little while?
Yeah. Yeah. So half on half, I think that's just exactly as we expected. And just to be clear on the reason for that, is that when we go back to the COVID impact period, we're obviously trading against a period where we didn't or were unable to sell other tickets in the mix, or we weren't selling single day or multi-day tickets. We were literally only selling annual passes because we only had that market available to us. And consequently, there was obviously a very strong growth in yield as a result of that. So we always expected as the mix changed, and we sold more single day and multi-day tickets, that that would moderate. And so that's not surprising to us.
As we've outlined, I think, you know, ad nauseam, as we see international and event business and education business come back on, and we're seeing, you know, that progressively move up, particularly in the event space, the corporate events, that is all good business for us, and we want to take it. It's incremental business, but it does have a softening effect on yield. And so we're seeing that now in terms of moderation. Our view is still that we continue to expect to grow yield. I think we've been very clear about how we expect to see yield moderate, but it will continue to grow.
Yeah, perfect. Thank you. Maybe just a quick one, just again, on, on to the annual passes. Any, any sort of commentary you, you can make in terms of how you, how you're finding that, that cohort, in terms of, sort of, I guess churn, churn as the months are rolling on, or, or, any sort of general feedback on, on how you're feeling about the consumer? You obviously did, did note a strong, strong July, so we can read, we can read through that. But, yeah, how, how are you sort of finding, finding things more broadly?
Look, I think we're a value player, and I think if you look at our price points and the value you get for a whole year of experiences, look, we feel really good about our value proposition compared to others in the market. Look, we're—as we said in July, the results have been good, both in terms of EBITDA, but also in terms of just ticketing volumes being up on last year. And again, last year was up over 100% on the year prior. So we're obviously confident with all of that, but we continue to be focused on it.
As I say, our, the name of our game here is to sell tickets of every type, but the tickets I want to sell the most is annual passes, and we, we remain absolutely focused on doing that. And so we, we continue to focus on it. We continue to look at opportunities to, to grow our share in that space, and we, and we're doing that, as you can see.
Yeah, perfect. And then, perhaps just a quick one on costs. Perhaps just looking too much into the detail, but, there was a decent bump up in repairs and maintenance, half on half. Any sort of comments there? And, yeah, is it sort of fair to take that sort of second half number on the employee cost side and sort of move that forward with some growth, or are there any sort of seasonal factors we should think about as well on the cost piece?
Yeah, no problem. Let me, let me just give you a bit more color on the, on the cost space. Obviously, expenses grew on the whole. As I outlined in the prepared remarks, where we see the most growth was actually in cost of goods sold. That was up 40%+ on a year-on-year basis, and I'm happy for that cost continuing to grow. It's clearly, you know, linked and related to activity, and the more product we sell in the parks, obviously in F&B and retail, the higher that number goes.
What I'm absolutely focused on, as is the team, is making sure our ratios hold, and what we're seeing in retail and F&B costs is actually, you know, a reduction despite, you know, material input costs coming in, you know, at much higher rates than what they have in the past. That's a combination of a few things. We're managing mix better, I think. Obviously working closely with our suppliers, but we're also managing to, you know, be quite bullish about pricing increases in the in-park space, and we're probably a little bit more aggressive in in-park pricing increases than what we are on headline pricing increases, given the current economic environment. In terms of general expenditure, look, it was up about 14%.
Look, when you look at revenue up 70%, obviously attendance up in a similar level, you know, we expect to see a little bit of that, but we're obviously trying to constrain that as much as we can. A lot of it is in labor, as you've called out, you know, around AUD 5 million in labor. And that was. You know, two things really are driving that. Obviously, we've, similar to a lot of organizations, have been encumbered by the near 6% increase in wage costs across most of our team members, you know, and some activity-based increases as well. I think your view on, look, will it be similar, and go up, you know, fractionally over time is still how we think about things.
As I've said a lot, you know, around what we see as economies of scale, that'll continue to get better as weekday business gets better. What we see during the week, as I've said to you in the past, is that, you know, when I'm running a roller coaster with one person, I could double the attendance in the week and not increase that roller coaster, you know, staffing. So that labor efficiency will get better as international and weekday attendances get better as well.
Powerful. Thank you.
Your next question is from Brian Han with Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Craig, in your internal long-term planning and budgeting, do you guys envisage attendance ever going back to above 2 to 2.2 million level? Or do you think there's been some fundamental changes to make that unlikely?
... Morning, Brian. Good question. Look, we've got a few models as you can imagine. Let me just go to the first, kind of, how we think about the business fundamentally. We think about the business less around attendance and more about just purely how we're going to achieve historical earnings. And as you've kind of alluded to in your question, we expect to achieve that historical EBITDA on a lower attendance base than what we had in the past. We've obviously got another model, which contemplates upside if we were to get attendance back to those, you know, 2 million+ levels, whilst maintaining a similar yield profile to what we're seeing today. And obviously, there's clear upside in that.
I'm very confident that we can do better than the base case of just getting, you know, to the historical numbers on a lower attendance. And the reason for that is, you know, there's a few thoughts around it. The first one is that we are just seeing, you know, a huge amount of net migration into the local market. And so, you know, you can see that obviously the consequence of some of the struggles we're seeing around housing up here on the Gold Coast. I know it's a national issue, but it's very pronounced here. You can see some of the things that we've called out in terms of what the state government's saying around this is an area of priority development.
So we feel good about just the amount of people literally coming in to this space. The other reason why we feel we can continue to grow attendance is we just don't think we're optimized yet in terms of, you know, strategies to continue to drive repeat visitation. I think we're doing a lot of really good things, but we've got a number of plans still here in place to do that.
And lastly, you know, the product mix and where we are with the products, look, we're really happy with how it's going but, you know, FY 2026, in my mind, is the year when we have all of these things in place, and we see the first year of that kind of annualized performance with the product really, you know, at a high level, where we have Rivertown open and all the other things we've talked about. That's not suggesting that I'm not happy with the product today. We are. We're confident about with what we're doing right now, but obviously, we've got an eye to, you know, the end of next year and what that will mean for us.
Obviously, again, as I say, FY 2026 being the first kind of annualized full- year of performance with all of this product in place. So hopefully that helps answer your question. It was a bit of rambling, but gives you a bit of a feel for how we're thinking about it.
No, that, that is useful, Greg. But, the reason why your base case assumption is that you'll get back to those levels on an earnings basis, but not on admission basis, is because given the push and shove, you would rather maximize yield than really go after that attendance number. Is that how we should look at it?
Look, that's, that's the way that we're thinking about it. Absolutely. And, and it's purely, again, are we moderating in yield at the moment? Look, a little bit, but there's no way that we're going to go back to yields anything like what we were doing back in, in 2016. And you just look at our ticket pricing. Obviously, we're calling out net yields here, but our ticket pricing today, you know, the average cost of a ticket, it costs... You know, if I, if I just do the simple rudimentary math, and I look at the, the total ticketing revenue that we're doing against the total ticketing volumes that we're doing, you know, back in 2016, it was about AUD 50, and now it's, it's near AUD 100, and we're not intending to give any of that back.
We will do promotions at times, for sure, but we're not going back to the days of, you know, AUD 99 annual passes or anything like that. And moreover, we're very, you know, mindful about the mix as well, and so single day and multi-day tickets particularly, I've talked about this a lot and, you know, I feel that our offering is as good, if not better, than our competitors on a single day basis, and we'll never be cheaper than them, in that space. You know, but we also obviously see an opportunity to continue to grow annual passes as well.
Great. Last question. Jose, on the $9 million contingent money from Dave & Buster's, based on how the business is traveling now, when do you think you guys will get all of that money by?
Hi, Brian. Yeah. As I mentioned, you may have missed it in the presentation. We keep regular contact with Dave & Buster's. Obviously, it depends on their performance, not ours. But the indications that we've been given are that we should see that start to come through at the end of this year. I don't think that we'll get all of it. When I say end of this year, I mean, end of calendar year. So they lodge their tax return around mid-November, and so sometime after that, we should see probably the majority of it come through, but there may be a small residual to come through 12 months later.
Okay, great. Thanks, guys.
The next question is from April Lowe with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hi, Gary, Greg, and Jose. Just a few questions from me. Firstly, it was good to see operating revenue up 14% in July on PCP. Could you break this down a little bit more into admissions growth compared to price growth? I think in the first question, you did say that volumes were up on PCP.
Yeah, look, April, we're not giving obviously too much granularity in that for competitive reasons, but I can tell you that it's a lot of it is still in yield. And so, the July number was a combination of things, obviously, still good yield, decent attendances, and also, you know, we had some cost benefits that we've just been focusing on, as Jose outlined, in the business. And obviously, we talked a little bit about corporate costs. That doesn't really impact the July result, as we've reported it today, but it's a mix of all of those different things. Look, I think it's just important to stress how focused we are on cost in the business as well.
I often, you know, reiterate, not at the expense of safety, but we are absolutely focused on cost here at the moment. And that obviously helps our case as we see revenue grow as well. And so we're, you know, trying to find that bAlance between all those different things. But fundamentally, it's a lot about yield.
... Okay, great. Thank you. EBITDA was up, I think, 107% on-
Yeah.
July 2022.
Yeah.
Which is obviously very, very strong. Is that just because it was a low base?
Yeah, I think that's the first thing to point out, and as I said in the remarks, you know, one month doesn't make it a year. But we'll take it. But, you know, we're focused on every month. And so July, helpful that it is a, you know, predominantly school holiday month. We were really happy with Winterfest and how well that went. We had a number of new initiatives that we deployed over Winterfest, and some tweaks that we made to the product offer. All of those were very successful. We also saw really good, you know, early sales in our Fun Run, which was sold out as well. That was all, you know, accretive to that result as well. But again, we're happy with the result for July.
You know, that's one month, we've got 11 more to go.
Okay, amazing. Thank you. How do you think about incremental ROI on the capital being deployed from the CapEx?
Yeah. I might let Jose start with that, and then I'll add some color as well.
Yeah. Hi, April. Yeah, so when we're looking to spend money on large capital projects, you know, we go through quite a rigorous process, as I outlined earlier, which includes, you know, non-financial sort of factors as well as financial performance. As part of the financial sort of element of that, we do modeling to try to understand what, you know, the net present value of an investment might look like, its internal rate of return, ROI, and payback period. So we look at all four of those sort of separate elements or sides, if you like, of that.
You know, generally speaking, I'm not gonna sort of give you precise sort of thresholds or hurdles that we apply, but as a general sort of measure, you know, we look for an investment to deliver returns that are well above the group's cost of capital at the very minimum.
I would just add to that, that I think you're well aware, April, of the state of the ride fleet in relatively recent times, and the significant level of underinvestment that had been in the park for quite an extended period, which saw the necessary retirement of a number of historically prominent rides, and the clear requirement in order to remain relevant for investment into signature rides such as Steel Taipan and Sky Voyager.
Yeah. Just, just one other thing, sorry, I'd just add, April, is that when, when we're adding new rides, you know, a single ride on its, on its own, sometimes the impact of that is not as great as the cumulative impact of, of several, several new rides into the whole sort of product package, if you, if you like. So when it, when it comes to new rides and attractions, I think sometimes, the whole is, is, is more than the sum of the parts, if, if you like. It's a, it's a cumulative effect.
Yeah, I mean, there's not often a silver bullet you put in your rides and suddenly you see this significant accretion in attendance revenue in one fell swoop. But it is, as Jose said, a cumulative effect. I would say, though, just to add a little bit of color to all of that, is that, as I outlined in the remarks, our results for FY 2023 was ahead of where Jose and I and others in the organization had forecast. And so we had broken even, you know, probably 12 months ahead of our expectations. And those forecasts were predicated on things like Steel Taipan and Sky Voyager being in the mix.
And so, if nothing else, if you think about that in that regard, is that, you know, we had a budget internally based on those things, and we well and truly exceeded that budget, I can say. Well, you know, that obviously gives us some confidence about the attractions selections that we're making as well. And as Jose also outlined, we think about it, you know, obviously fundamentally it's about financial performance, and that's the top of our list, and so, you know, with safety. But just as importantly, we look at non-financial measures and, you know, we're looking at ridership, we're looking at NPS, we're looking at all of those other things as well. You know, they are just as important to give us a feel as to what we're doing around the new product we're putting in.
Great, thanks for that, and it is starting to look really good, so it's exciting. I might just sneak in two more questions. Just on the land development, do you see an opportunity to divest the land, after the development approvals have been received?
Look, April, as I said, in the remarks, the way that we intend to crystallize that value, we're not there yet, is exactly how we intend to do it. I can assure you that we are looking and canvassing a number of different options. And we're looking at the highest and best use, and that's part of the thinking behind us, you know, retaining some capital. I am sure that investors, you know, some investors will say, "Well, why don't you give us back more?" Our view is very strongly is that we need two things. One is sufficient headroom. There is some uncertainty out there, and I think it's prudent, and we've always been prudent about this. But moreover, is that we want to retain some cash to give us optionality.
That doesn't mean that we're looking to use that cash necessarily today, but we want to have the optionality to do that. Our, our view is, again, very strongly is what is the highest and best use? Is that a development ourselves? Is that participating in a development with a joint venture partner, or is that simply selling, selling the land at a much higher, piece of value than what we would achieve today? Well, that's, that's all still part of our, you know, strategic thinking that we're looking at in that space. Let, let me just make the point, though, very clearly and, and simply, is that if I look at parts of our land today, we only have the capability to build theme park-related attractions on it.
and I don't see any benefit in doing that in certain parts of our land. I'm not looking to grow the footprint of this park significantly by any way, shape, or form. I think we've got enough space here to do all the things we need to do for you know a long long time here, and so we don't need to expand out when I think about new attractions and I think about refurbishment of existing attractions and things like that, and incremental attractions, we're not looking to expand out. So if I have that space today and I can only build a roller coaster out there, and if we are you know successful in our approval, suddenly we can do a residential or a commercial or a mixture development.
Obviously, just in and of itself, on a prima facie basis, the land is worth significantly more just on that basis alone. The opportunity obviously then for us is, well, how are we best to crystallize that value? And is that purely looking to divest it, or is it looking to do other things with it? And we're not there yet. You know, as we talk about internally, it's all about having a very rational approach to this. We're in a hurry, as well as everyone is, but at the same time, there's no benefit in us rushing to, you know, expensive, you know, master plan drawings and things like that if we don't have the approvals in place.
And so we're obviously being quite deliberate about how we're taking this process on, and we're just working through it methodically.
Makes sense. Thank you. The last one from me was, what's the trajectory for corporate overheads now that the class action has been settled?
It's going down. Look, as Jose outlined, our view is we're continuing to work on it. Look, it is still, there's not a lot of... There's no fat in that corporate overhead, I can tell you that now. Jose and Chris sit at their desks, and I look at the other few people we have in that office. It's not a plush, palatial office by any stretch. It's you can barely swing a cat in there.
And most of the corporate costs, really, as we've outlined, is in both insurance and also in things like listing costs and things like that, which, you know, we look at the way to be most efficient in all of those areas, and obviously, insurance is one of those opportunities that we're looking at. But it's an area we continue to manage. And again, I think the thing that Jose outlined, too, is that the directors have voluntarily taken a reduction in fees that is very material. You know, again, I think that just goes to the, to the, you know, proprietary approach that we have in the business, both at the board and the in the business itself.
Fantastic. Thank you so much.
Please note that we have three more callers in queue, so please be mindful to limit your questions to allow an opportunity for all in the allotted time. Our next question is from Roger Colman with Pax Pasha. Please go ahead.
What's the allotted time?
Gentlemen, I'm just curious about the value of the land currently selling for around the area. What's your view of this 55 hectare valuation in overall terms?
The short answer, Roger, is that we don't have a current market valuation of the site. We need to see the outcome of the development approval, and we will go from there, depending on the outcome of that process and the flexibility that the approval provides for utilization of the individual lots that have been identified.
Right. And then a follow-up question to Greg. I'm looking at the 2016 data ratio between revenues between you guys and Village Roadshow. You had 27% of the market revenues on a two-company basis. Last year, you're sitting at around 14%. That's a heck of a lot of leverage. But if we look at volume of attendances, and the EBITDA drop through from revenue, what do you think the maximum EBITDA now is for the group in, not for the group total, just for the theme park?
Oh, look, I don't have a maximum number, Roger. I, I can tell you that we've, we've got projections that go out, obviously, five and six years. So there's organic numbers in there. Just as a theme park group, there's obviously another model which contemplates not only the organic number but also, incremental, investments that we might look to take. Your point well made, Roger, I think that we just see tremendous upside. If, if I think about 2016, obviously I worked somewhere else at that point in time, and the size of the market then and what the size of the market is today is bigger. Again, it's, it's clear between both Village and us, that we're not, we're not, as, as, invested into that market as what we were back then.
The penetration numbers are lower. And so we just see that as upside. How are we gonna get that upside? Look, we've got to do a good job. We've got to do a good job around product, and we've got to do a good job around marketing. We've got to do a good job around maintaining guest experience, and we're obviously doing all those things.
Yeah. Just a quick one after that, Greg, is the-
Yeah.
SkyPoint's obviously easy to get back to profitability.
Yeah.
Is SkyPoint profitable on an EBITDA basis? And what proportion of the AUD 3.1 million came from SkyPoint, if not a majority?
Yeah, we don't give the detail on SkyPoint, Roger. We haven't ever done that, and we don't intend to in the future for obvious reasons. But I can tell you that SkyPoint is profitable on an EBITDA basis. And we're very happy with how it's been going. And again, as I've outlined, we're particularly happy, and I'm to be really truthful, we're slightly surprised by it, to be frank, because it was such a significant business in international terms for us. It was, you know, international was more than half of the business before. I can tell you it's nowhere near that today, and we've somehow managed to bridge that gap. And when I say somehow, there was a plan. We looked at how we're gonna bridge that gap.
We looked very closely at, you know, what are we going to do in this, you know, intermediary period? And we, and we looked particularly at locals and how we could drive that business, and that's been, very, very successful for us. What does that mean for SkyPoint? Well, look, our, our focus at SkyPoint is about saying: "Well, look, how do we bring international back in here in a, in a more judicious fashion than what we might have done in the past?" And that means-
... being very mindful about price and also very mindful about optionality and inclusions as well. And so that's obviously part of our thinking. But look, the business is going well there. We're, we're very happy with how SkyPoint is going.
Okay. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Your next question is from David Kingston with K Capital. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Look, overall, I think it's a very disappointing result for the theme parks. I think you're trying to put a positive spin when the actuality is you are delivering an EBIT loss from continuing operations of AUD 11.2 million. That's your figure. If you read the announcement, you get a very different impression, but the actual loss is AUD 11.2 million from continuing operations. Gary, look, in your campaign when you became chairman in 2017, you represented the potential to deliver AUD 300 million in value through theme park attendance recovery. Now, that aim has absolutely vaporized. In the six years as chair, there are four large areas of failure for the theme parks. The critical one is that the visitation is currently 1.2 million.
Now, that compares with 2.4 million in 2016, so you're at half the visitation level six years after taking the chair. That cascades into poor revenue, AUD 83.9 million, way below 2016 revenue of AUD 107 million. It cascades to an embarrassing level of profitability. Let's call a spade a spade. In the second half of 2023, EBITDA in the theme parks was 0. 0. Now, that's embarrassing compared to the AUD 35 million EBITDA in FY 2016. The other thing that's a huge, huge concern is the large CapEx. Gary, when you sought to become chairman, you indicated you would spend AUD 25 million on CapEx. You've already spent over AUD 60 million without the desired impact, because the theme parks are continuing to lose money.
You're now moving into stage two, which is another AUD 50 million-AUD 60 million of CapEx. So 25 million has blown out to AUD 115 million. Now, that's all in the context of announcing today an EBIT loss from continuing operations of AUD 11.2 million. To be frank, it's a very feeble capital management announcement, 10% buyback. You've got AUD 141 million of cash, no debt, freehold property ownership, surplus land. It's what you'd everyone would describe as a very, very lazy bAlance sheet. So to offer AUD 25 million back to shareholders is very, very disappointing. Look, overall, for an iconic theme park, it's been a terrible outcome and continues to be a terrible outcome. We've heard today that the village competitor a few kilometers away is shooting the lights out.
Most leisure operations in 2022, whether you're talking about pubs or theme parks, shut the lights out. Most tourism operators are doing well post-COVID, but again, Dreamworld is continuing to deliver a loss. I get a sense, everyone, that you're continuing to make excuses, continuing to ask for more time. Gary, you've been there for six years. Greg Yong, I was very disappointed to hear before you were referring to FY 2026. Heaven forbid, you know? How long does it take? Bottom line is, in my opinion, it's time to fix the poor shareholder value. Maybe sell Dreamworld, WhiteWater, SkyPoint, and the surplus land to a superior operator. But certainly there needs to be a major change in urgency, a major change in delivering shareholder value, because what's been achieved and delivered is extremely disappointing.
Yes, thank you. Thank you, David. Yeah, just a repetition of your entirely self-serving, intellectually flawed analysis, which frankly, is about as superficial a deconstruction of the recent history of Dreamworld as can be imagined. In the words of Mike Tyson, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." You seem to have completely ignored a number of highly relevant factors, including the historical underinvestment in Dreamworld prior to the tragedy in October 2016. The extreme negative publicity surrounding the tragedy, both initially and particularly following the initiation of the current coroner's inquest in June 2018, right through to the delivery of the coroner's report in February 2020.
The numerous legal claims arising from the tragedy and the coroner's report, the material impact of the COVID pandemic on financial viability, operations and visitation across FY 2020 to FY 2022, the ongoing post-pandemic disruption to travel patterns, the class action, which thankfully we recently concluded, and all the other factors that are conveniently ignored in your deconstruction of history. So, for the... You may well criticize, as you do, sitting in your commentary box, always managing to play the game a lot better than those out there on the field. For our part, it has taken, as we've said, a lot longer and a lot greater cost to repair this business, but the remediation is well underway, and we're very pleased by the current trajectory of the business. Any other questions, Chris?
Gary, you've bought enough-
Thank you.
You've bought enough.
Any other questions? You brought in after the trade, Gary. Yeah, well, this is the results. You're all about that. Yeah, this is the results presentation, and we'll deal with any other questions arising from the results. Okay?
Your next question is from Malcolm McComas with McComas Capital. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Gary. I'm a new shareholder, top 2%. Look, firstly, congratulations for keeping Ardent solvent during COVID, and for the sale of Main Event and the special dividend and, settling the class action. Major achievements. But you must feel pretty frustrated, having spent a lot of time and effort to stabilize the business, compared to your vision in 2017. My simple question is to cut to the chase, I won't rehash old ground about disappointing financials or the high risk of the continued CapEx spend. But my point is simply this: will you undertake to seek shareholder approval for any new use of excess capital, including the proceeds from any property development activity or realizations, other than returning it to shareholders?
Because I just don't think that a 10% buyback is enough to make a difference, to returns, shareholder returns, that's what we're talking about, relative to your AUD 50 million of reserved cash and, the upside from either having a new operator run this business or, to contribute a positive EBITDA or, the realization from your master plan, which I'm sure will be, a major prize to be sought after.
Yeah.
I ask for that undertaking.
You won't receive it. This board has performed superbly, and thank you for acknowledging the challenges and the achievements. Firstly, the achievements that have been done by this board, including the sale of the Bowling and Entertainment division back in 2018. You may recall at a 27x EBITDA multiple and a profit of $20 million. The turnaround of Main Event, with doubling of EBITDA over a four-year period, despite the pandemic. The sale of Main Event, which you've kindly acknowledged.
The financing challenge, it—I'm sure you're well aware, perhaps others aren't, but the market capitalization of this company went from AUD 780 million in January 2020 to AUD 53 million in May 2020, at a time when there was a massive existential threat to Ardent's businesses and with a requirement for AUD 200 million of financing. The fact that we've managed to achieve what we have done is entirely attributable to the efforts of the board and management in achieving an outstanding outcome from what was undoubtedly an absolutely existential threat. There is no need to look for any new so-called operator. We hear statements of competitors apparently shooting the lights out. There's no public information, unless Mr.
Kingston can give us the latest trading data for Village Roadshow, which we'd be keenly interested to see. All we can do is look at our own performance, and this is entirely implementing the same playbook that we used for Main Event, and as Greg called out earlier, the green shoots that you can see and the turnaround that is occurring is to be found initially and most vividly in the guest satisfaction scores. This was exactly the same indicator that heralded the significant turnaround in Main Event, and this is just a replay of the Main Event story. And similarly, hearing bleating from people about how Dave & Buster's was outperforming Main Event.
Well, we've seen how all of that played out, with Dave & Buster's ultimately acquiring Main Event, and with it, acquiring all the Main Event management people to run Dave & Buster's. So, I will not provide that undertaking that you seek, Malcolm. I'm pleased that you have a level of shareholding. The group that I represent, of course, is a substantial shareholder, so we have a proprietorial interest in the outcome here and in the deployment of capital. For our part, we're very well pleased with the trajectory that the business is on and feel very confident that the best years of Dreamworld lie ahead. Are there any other questions? Yeah.
There are no further questions in queue. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Dr Weiss for closing remarks.
Thank you, everybody, on the call today. As you can see, we're very pleased by the current performance of Dreamworld. The team is executing well. A number of initiatives that we've highlighted, which we think all augur well for the future. Thank you for your attendance today.
That does conclude your conference call today. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for your participation.