Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Coast Entertainment Holdings Limited FY 2025 Half-Year Financial Results Conference Call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, there'll be a Q&A 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 2025 half-year results for Coast Entertainment Holdings Limited. My name is Gary Weiss, and I am the Chairman of Coast Entertainment. I'm joined today by our Chief Executive Officer, Greg Yong, and our Chief Financial Officer, José De Sacadura. I will start by providing some introductory remarks, after which I will hand over to José and Greg to take you through some further detail. Turning to slide three, the first half of FY 2025 has marked another period of positive momentum for the group. Despite ongoing economic headwinds, the group has delivered a solid performance with consolidated EBITDA excluding specific items of AUD 1.9 million, up significantly compared to AUD 0.1 million reported in the prior period. Pleasingly, this result marks the third consecutive half-year of positive EBITDA earnings for the group's continuing business.
The thedme parks and attractions business has continued its strong performance recovery, with EBITDA excluding specific items increasing 35.5% to AUD 4.1 million. Operating revenue grew 9.6% to AUD 47.7 million, the highest first-half revenue for the continuing business since the first half of FY 2016, driven by a 7.1% increase in ticket sales and 10.8% growth in visitation. Additionally, the group's deferred revenue balance increased by 3.2% compared to December 2023, reflecting continued strong sales of annual passes. The group's net profit after tax of AUD 3.1 million represents a 140% turnaround from the prior period and is the group's first net profit from continuing operations since FY 2016. Another important milestone was the successful launch of the new Rivertown area on 23 December 2024. This has been met with overwhelmingly positive guest feedback and has resulted in January 2025 recording solid growth in attendance, revenue, and EBITDA, which Greg will talk to shortly.
With regards to the group's storm-related insurance claims, I'm pleased to advise that these are now well progressed, with AUD 5.4 million of insurance income recognized in the period. This is in addition to AUD 0.7 million of insurance income recorded in the prior period. Following the successful completion of our first share buyback in August 2024, the group commenced a second buyback in November 2024, under which 3.6 million shares have been repurchased at a cost of AUD 1.6 million, as at the reporting date. At a group level, we continue to maintain a strong debt-free balance sheet with cash of AUD 59.9 million and available tax losses of AUD 137.9 million, as at 24 December 2024. In addition, a new AUD 10 million bank credit facility has been put in place to enhance liquidity and funding flexibility for the group, and this facility remains fully undrawn to date.
With those opening remarks, I will now hand over to José to take you through the group's financial results.
Thank you, Gary, and good morning, everyone. On slide four, we outline the consolidated results for first half 2025. As Gary mentioned, the group delivered a solid performance despite ongoing economic headwinds, which have dampened consumer discretionary spending, with the theme parks and attractions business reporting operating revenue of AUD 47.7 million, up 9.6% compared to the prior period and 23.4% above first half 2020 pre-COVID levels. This was the highest first-half revenue recorded by the business in first half 2016, underpinned by solid growth in ticket sales and visitation, and supported by increased promotional activity in the period, including a highly successful Black Friday campaign. Notably, we have seen a shift in sales mix towards more annual passes, which has driven increased levels of return visitation and, with it, in-park spend.
This demonstrates the resilience of the business in a very value-driven environment and reflects the strong demand we are seeing for our product following the launch of several new attractions over the last 12 - 18 months. As a result, the theme parks and attractions business has achieved an EBITDA result, excluding specific items, of AUD 4.1 million for the half-year, up 35.5% versus the prior period. This result was driven by a combination of the revenue growth I just mentioned and a disciplined approach to cost management as the business continues to scale back up. Corporate costs, excluding specific items, reduced by AUD 0.7 million, or 24%, to AUD 2.3 million for the period, primarily due to savings in insurance costs and audit fees. I will be talking a little bit more about these costs later in the presentation.
After taking account of the impact of some unrealized and non-recurring specific items, the group's consolidated EBITDA result has significantly improved to AUD 7 million compared to a loss of AUD 5.2 million reported in the prior period. Excluding these specific items, consolidated EBITDA from continuing operations was AUD 1.9 million, an improvement of AUD 1.8 million over the prior period. Significantly, as Gary mentioned, this marks the group's third consecutive half-year of positive EBITDA and EBITDA growth from continuing operations. Below the EBITDA line, depreciation and amortization increased by AUD 1.5 million due to the substantial capital invested in the new rides and attractions over the last 12 - 18 months. Net interest income declined AUD 1.2 million due to lower average cash balances and a reduction in market deposit rates.
Moving to the bottom line, net profit after tax from continuing operations of AUD 3.1 million represents a AUD 10.9 million improvement on the prior period and marks another important milestone, being the first net profit from continuing operations since FY 2016, highlighting the effectiveness of our strategic initiatives and the positive momentum that we are seeing building within the business. Further segmentation of the results can be found in Appendix One of the presentation. Moving to slide five, we detail the specific items impacting the results for the period. As you can see, the primary contributor impacting the group's EBITDA was the recognition of AUD 5.4 million of insurance income relating to the severe storms which impacted the business and, more broadly, Southeast Queensland in FY 2024.
This income includes AUD 3 million related to property damage and AUD 2.3 million for business interruption and is additional to the insurance income recognized in FY 2024 of AUD 0.7 million. Storm-related repair costs of AUD 0.3 million were also incurred in the first half of 2025, following an AUD 0.7 million loss relating to the write-off of storm-damaged assets in the prior period. Below the EBITDA line, net profit has also been impacted by an AUD 0.2 million expense relating to tax losses not recognized as a deferred tax asset in the period, offset by an AUD 1.1 million credit relating to the utilization of deductible temporary differences for which a deferred tax asset has not previously been recognized.
In aggregate, the group now has almost AUD 138 million of cumulative tax losses, as well as AUD 47 million of deductible temporary differences not recognized on the balance sheet, which combined have a tax value of over AUD 55 million. As I've mentioned in prior presentations, despite the accounting treatment, these items continue to be of considerable value to the group as they remain available for use by the group in future periods. As a reminder, further segmentation of these specific items can be found in Appendix Two of the presentation. With that, I'll now hand over to Greg, who will take you through the performance of the theme parks and attractions business.
Thanks, José. Good morning, everyone. I'm excited to share some of our progress as we solidify our position as one of the Gold Coast's favorite destinations. On the 23rd of December, as we've already outlined, we successfully launched the highly anticipated Rivertown, along with the new Jane's Rivertown Restaurant. The launch of our multi-million-dollar investment was attended by the Chairman and our Lead Independent Director, and pleasingly was officially opened by one of our longest-serving team members, Michelle Doyle. Rivertown is a game changer for Dreamworld and for the Gold Coast. It's not just a new land, but it's a world on its own designed to elevate the Dreamworld experience like never before. It features some of the most thematic attractions we've ever built, and these experiences have been crafted with a focus on intergenerational fun, making them exciting for everyone from small kids to grandparents.
You can even see that in our marketing. It's also a testament to Dreamworld's dedication to tourism in Southeast Queensland, local employment, and the visitor economy. The project created about 1,000 local jobs, booked over 100,000 of on-site construction hours, and had over 120 workers on-site each day in the weeks leading up to the opening. As I've mentioned in previous presentations, the Gold Coast construction environment has been very challenging in recent years, and therefore the successful opening of this major attraction, both on time and on budget, is a huge milestone achievement. I'd like to take a moment to thank our internal and our external team for their hard work and dedication in making Rivertown a reality. The guest feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, which I'll highlight on the following page. It's not just the guests which are excited.
The media response has been incredible, with Rivertown receiving the highest level of positive coverage since the launch of Steel Taipan three years ago. Looking ahead, we anticipate these new attractions will bring tangible economic benefits, and we expect to see those results start to materialize from the second half of FY 2025 onwards. Turning to page eight, I'd like to share just a sample of some of the wonderful guest feedback we've been receiving since the opening of Rivertown. Bringing this experience to life has been an incredible undertaking for our team. It's a highly complex project, intricate engineering in Jungle Rush, and really detailed theming throughout the precinct, and it's something that we're incredibly proud of. It's especially rewarding to hear how much our new experiences are resonating with the people that matter the most in our guests.
As you can see on this slide, people are raving about the incredible theming in Rivertown, from the bathrooms right through to the uniforms. Also pleasing is that they've noticed the hands-on approach of our team, the entire team, and that's leaving a very strong impression. The overall vibe of the area, along with the food and the services, made Rivertown a new favorite for many, and we're excited to see this enthusiasm continue to grow. On slide nine, we showcase Murrissippi Motors, which reimagines a cherished classic, taking guests on a scenic journey through Rivertown's lush landscape. This new attraction weaves around the iconic RAAF Caribou aircraft, a stunning centerpiece brimming with history and adventure. This new attraction is already becoming a family favorite, offering guests and in particular kids the unique opportunity to take the wheel of their own adventure.
As part of Rivertown, we're also proud to introduce the Jungle Rush Coaster. This centerpiece attraction featured on slide 10 is Dreamworld's largest ever investment in a single attraction and the first roller coaster of its kind in the world. The ride is packed with twists and turns and thrilling moments, making it a must-try for adventurers of all ages. It reinforces our commitment to creating intergenerational experiences where families can share unforgettable moments together. If you come to the Rivertown precinct and look at the guests, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. Now let's turn to slide 11. No visit to Rivertown is truly complete without a stop at Jane's Rivertown Restaurant. It offers the most immersive dining experience in any Australian theme park.
With seating for over 300 guests, the restaurant features a lively jungle-themed setting, complete with lifelike animatronic animals and a themed boat bar. The menu blends traditional theme park favorites along with Gold Coast local flavors, offering a one-of-a-kind dining experience. The response from our guests when we first opened Jane's was overwhelming. In fact, it's been so busy that we've had our back office teams helping to serve guests to ensure a seamless experience. Next on slide 12 is a summary of the theme parks and attractions' financial results. As we've outlined, the business recorded an operating revenue of AUD 47.7 million, a 9.6% increase compared to the prior period and 23.4% above first half 2020 or pre-COVID levels. This growth was underpinned by a 7.1% increase in ticket sales and a 10.8% growth in visitation.
First half 2025 operating revenue and ticket sales were the highest seen since the first half of 2016, despite ongoing economic headwinds, which we have seen from recent retail results in the market. We are also cycling prior period ticket sales, which have had the benefit of large bulk sales to a single reseller. Additionally, SkyPoint has also achieved its best revenue on record. International visitation continues to improve, albeit being significantly below historical levels. The mix is notably different with China in particular, and we are optimistic about the growth potential of this market. It is improving. It is continuing to recover, but it's not at what it was prior to the pandemic. It's also worth noting that both entry and impact spend have improved over the prior period.
As a result of strong trading performance and prudent cost management, theme parks and attractions have delivered an EBITDA excluding specific items of AUD 4.1 million, a 35.5% increase compared to the prior period. Moving on to page 13 and some of the key revenue metrics. The first half saw strong growth in ticket sales compared to the prior period, partly driven by increased promotional activity, including, as José mentioned, a successful Black Friday campaign. Our marketing and promotional activities are ring-fenced and well-targeted, which is crucial in the current macroeconomic environment to drive sales effectively. This has boosted annual pass sales, resulting in the deferred revenue balance increase, which we have outlined compared to December 2023. First half annual pass sales are now 107% above the first half 2017 levels. Despite the increased promotional activity, ticket sales per cap remains well above historical levels.
This shift towards annual passes has led to higher levels of repeat visitation, which facilitates more opportunities for us to encourage impact spend. As I mentioned earlier, impact revenue per cap has also increased compared to the prior period and is significantly above historical levels. While the increase in return visitation has had a slightly dilutionary impact on total revenue per cap, yields are still strong at 41% higher than FY 2017 levels. Turning to page 14 and a snapshot of January 2025 performance. Clearly, with the opening of Rivertown in late December, we have seen a strong trading performance through January. Visitation was up 33%, driven by strong ticket sales leading into summer and an increase in return visits due to the larger annual pass holder base. Revenue was up 25%, marking the highest January revenue since 2016, with a 31% increase in impact revenue.
Much of this was driven by Ride Express revenue, which was the strongest we've seen in the history of the park. EBITDA, excluding specific items, was up 50%, also the highest since 2016. On an EBITDA and revenue basis, SkyPoint has had its best ever January and its best ever month in its history. These are good numbers, but what I'm particularly pleased about is our ability to trade the business at these levels and look after our guests at the same time. Too often, parks in busy periods lose focus on the experience, and the resultant loss of goodwill really does devastate their prospects of reserving these guests in the future. To that end, and turning to slide 15, we are pleased to note that our guest scores have once again improved year on year for both of our attractions, while our peers have seen a decline.
It is always rewarding to hear how much our guests enjoy their time at Dreamworld, WhiteWater World, and SkyPoint, and these testimonials reflect the incredible experience we offer and show that our efforts are being well received with guests. Guests have praised not only our new attractions, but moreover the exceptional quality of the entire park, the experience, and the incredible friendliness of our team, which I think is a competitive advantage that is difficult for others to imitate. The fact that guests are now equating Dreamworld's new attractions to the level of Disney and Universal Studios speaks volumes about the addition of Rivertown and how that has significantly enhanced the overall Dreamworld experience for our guests. I really do encourage you to take a moment after the presentation to read these comments in detail.
On slide 16, we showcase some of the events and attractions we've hosted during the period. These events, as I've outlined in the past, play a key role in driving repeat visitation and increasing impact spending. We have seen several record-breaking performances in both our night market and our fun run businesses, which have been incredibly popular with our guests. I'm also excited to report that Dreamworld Street Food Festival is back this Easter holidays. We think this is an incredible event and has incredible potential at that. We are doubling down on execution, and if you haven't experienced it, I really do encourage you to come back and check it out. Next, on slide 17, I would like to provide an update on a few other developments.
The Claw has been one of Dreamworld's most popular attractions for over 20 years, and as the ride approached the end of its operational life, we explored several options and ultimately decided to replace it with a bigger, faster, and higher capacity King Claw at an estimated cost of around AUD 14 million. The final ride of The Claw took place on the 28th of January and gained significant media attention. This also provided Dreamworld fans the opportunity for one last ride while also celebrating the commencement of King Claw's construction. On the land development, I can advise that the State Assessment and Referral Agency, otherwise known as SARA, has this week approved our application, albeit with some conditions. As is customary, SARA have now referred the application to the City of Gold Coast for their review. The city will now consider the application and make a decision in due course.
Whilst this represents progress, we are carefully assessing SARA's conditions to understand any implications for our vision of maximizing value from our land holdings and enhancing amenity on the Northern Gold Coast. I can assure you that this process remains a key priority for management. We continue to work constructively with all stakeholders to achieve an outcome that delivers value for our shareholders and for the broader Gold Coast community. Finally, the team has made good progress with the insurers in relation to our FY 2024 Summer Storms insurance claims. In the first half of FY 2025, we recognized AUD 5.4 million in income from insurance claims, including AUD 3 million for property damage and AUD 2.3 million for business interruption. We anticipate that the insurance claims will be largely finalized by the end of the second half. I'll now hand the call back to José to talk through capital management and corporate costs.
Thanks, Greg. I'll now provide some detail regarding the group's corporate costs, cash flows, and capital management before opening up the lines for Q&A. As shown on slide 19, total corporate costs for first half 2025 came in at AUD 2.3 million, down 24% compared to the prior period, despite a high inflationary environment. This reduction was driven predominantly, as I mentioned earlier, by savings in insurance costs and audit fees. Insurance costs do continue to be a major line item, and in late fiscal year 2024, the group conducted an extensive remarketing exercise to a wider panel of global insurers to ensure that pricing of our major insurance line adequately reflects the increased competition we're seeing in the insurance markets, as well as the reduced size, complexity, and risks of the group today.
The group also undertook a detailed audit tender process and, as notified in our AGM address last November, has recently changed auditors, realizing some cost savings in the process. What we are now seeing is the lowest level of corporate overheads in over a decade, including the COVID-impacted years, reflecting management's commitment to simplifying and rationalizing the group's back office processes and cost structures, as well as maintaining strict cost discipline wherever possible. Turning to our cash flow and capital management position on slide 20. As Gary mentioned, the group continues to hold a solid balance sheet with no debt and almost AUD 60 million of cash on hand, as at the reporting date.
Operating cash flows for the half year improved by AUD 7 million compared to the prior period, supported by stronger trading performance, higher annual pass sales for which cash is received upfront, and insurance receipts of AUD 3.5 million net of storm-related repair costs. This was accompanied by AUD 2 million of interest receipts, albeit, as I mentioned earlier, interest income has declined AUD 1.3 million compared to the prior period due to lower average cash balances and a slight reduction in deposit rates over the last 12 months. Capital expenditure for the half totaled AUD 29.6 million, comprising AUD 4.7 million of maintenance CapEx and AUD 24.9 million of development CapEx, which includes investment in the new Rivertown area, which Greg mentioned, and Jane's Rivertown Restaurant.
With these capital projects having been completed very late in the half, we do expect to see some smaller residual payments in the second half of the year, but I would emphasize these are purely timing-related, and we've been pleased to deliver these projects on time and within budget. As noted in our November AGM address, the first on-market share buyback, which commenced in September 2023, completed in August 2024, with a total of 48 million shares repurchased at a cost of AUD 22.6 million. Now, this includes AUD 4.6 million of cash outflows falling into the first half of FY 2025. In late November, a second buyback was launched, with a further 3.6 million shares repurchased at a cost of AUD 1.6 million up to the 24th of December. This leaves 428.2 million shares remaining on issue as at the reporting date.
The buyback has continued into the second half of the year, and as at the close of business yesterday, 6.1 million shares have now been bought back at a total cost of AUD 2.8 million, representing just over 14% of the total shares which may be purchased under the program. Finally, in late December, the group secured a new AUD 10 million bank credit facility to provide additional liquidity headroom and funding flexibility for the group, as it continues to grow performance back to historical levels. Note, however, that this facility remains fully undrawn at this stage. That concludes the main part of our presentation, and I'll now open up the lines for 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 then two.
If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. The first question today comes from Allan Franklin from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Gary, Greg, José. Thank you for your time. Yeah, great to see the January prints coming through strong. Wouldn't mind delving into a bit of detail on Rivertown if we could, please. You're obviously referring to feedback, but just interested in the initial attendance levels versus your expectations and any sort of anecdotes in terms of the audience that's been brought in. Is it annual pass holders coming in for an extra visit, or are there new audiences you think you've been able to draw in through January?
Good morning.
Look, yeah, so look, I've outlined in the presentation just a sample of feedback that we received, but I encourage you, and I've always said this to followers of the company, that the best way to do it and seeing is believing, as Gary would say, is to go and have a look at our Google reviews. I'd also encourage you to look at Google reviews of other experiences in the Gold Coast. The experiences have been well received. As I've outlined, and exactly as we've tried to position the new precinct, we've really gone for an intergenerational approach here in terms of trying to attract the whole family. You would see in our marketing that we've actually gone out and cast a grandfather and a grandchild and a grandmother and a grandchild, as well as mum. That's not by accident.
We really do believe that as we go forward, a very strong focus on families and that breadth of market that we'd like to do is critical. We have certainly gone after that in terms of our ride selection criteria, but also in our marketing and all of our communications today. I can tell you that when I stand at the ride and in the control room and watch patrons get on the attraction, we're seeing exactly that. We are certainly seeing very young children. The minimum height for the attraction is 95 centimeters, so that is actually quite a young child. I am seeing a lot of grandparents and people that you do not always particularly see participate in theme park rides.
In fact, our marketing team would tell you that we've got a segment classified for them called bag holders, and it's great to see that bag holders are starting to see some value out of their ticket because they're actually going on and experiencing both Jungle Rush and also Murrissippi Motors with their families. There's a bit of thinking in our minds too around where is wealth currently in the market, and there's certainly a view that more mature parts of the market have probably higher levels of discretionary income and probably are less impacted by some of the headwinds that we've outlined than younger families. In terms of who's been visiting, look, it's been a good mix, Allan. We've seen a really good kick from annual pass holders. That's not unexpected. The annual pass holder base is the highest it's been since 2016, and that's expected.
We haven't been surprised by that at all. Look, annual passes, as I've outlined on numerous occasions, are one of the most critical parts of the business. They have the highest face value of our ticket and the opportunity for us to remarket to them to provide them value, which increases net spend. Also, more importantly, and what is taking a lot of focus in the organization today, is our ability to retain them over time is really important. We were very pleased to see that a very strong response in single-day, multi-day tickets, which is typically coming out of our interstate markets and predominantly out of Sydney and Melbourne. We've got some very early insights into the destination performance, and I know that the data that you follow is typically TRA data, and there's a fairly decent lag on that.
Our early analysis of the school holiday period, based on what we can see from anecdotes in market, is that our performance outperformed the market and quite considerably based on what we're seeing so far. A good mix of annual pass and multi-day.
Helpful. Thank you. Perhaps just on Jane's Rivertown Restaurant, I mean, I think you alluded to seating capacity for 300 guests, which is significant. I'm assuming those guests can obviously be turned multiple times a day. Just sort of contemplating how we should think about this as a contributor over calendar 2025, and how does that sort of bleed through into per capita spend? I assume it's somewhat dilutionary to the headline number, but in revenue terms, it obviously has a lot of optionality to the upside.
Yeah, it's a good question, Allan.
You might also note that in previous presentations, I've suggested the capacity of 280. In real life, despite the very best efforts in terms of architectural drawings, once we set the restaurant out, we managed to fit in comfortably another 20-odd seats in there, which pleasingly we needed through the holiday period. I can assure you that for many days in the school holiday period, the restaurant was absolutely full, not one seat available, a line out the front, and a real effort from the team to turn tables rapidly. As to the performance, look, we're very happy with it. I can assure you that when we think about these things and investment in terms of capital, we're looking for incremental growth.
Certainly, the business case, as you've outlined, is founded on the idea that there will be some kind of cannibalization out of the core, and we expect that, but we wouldn't be doing these things if we didn't have a perspective that they'd be net incremental to performance. Jane's so far has been exactly that. It's actually outperformed our initial benchmarks and our initial capital hurdles that we outlined for the board when we motivated for this project. Our expectation is that it'll continue to do so. How does it sit in terms of the rest of the organization, in terms of our food offer? Look, it's in the top few outlets in the business. That's typically not the case in my experience with sit-down à la carte style theme park restaurants.
It's usually a business which is lower in volume, higher in average check, and a really good overflow in those peak periods or for certain segments that have a bit more time and want to take some time out of the theme park environment. I've been pleasantly surprised, I would say, by how well it has performed very early on and to be crude knocking off some of our other fast casual elements of the business. We are happy with all of that. I would say one thing is that our business is founded and critically important to our business is the notion of volume, and we need to be reasonably busy all the time. Comfortably busy is probably the way I would put it in order for us to optimize the performance of the organization and get that operating leverage which we're seeking.
In January, very, very strong performance. Outside of those school holiday periods, we've got to take a different approach to how we operate the business. That's what the team is very focused on at the moment, is trying to make sure that we're cautious about labor in those off-peak periods and really trying to supplement the outlet through event business. Next time you're in the Gold Coast, I'm happy to show you what we've done there. We actually did a walk around with some people in January, and it's a really fantastic events and conferencing space, and we've already got a good amount of bookings in that area already, which gives us that optionality through the week and also on weeknights to prop up revenues that we otherwise wouldn't be seeing when the business is a little bit flatter.
Overall, look, Jane, we could not be happier with how it's turned out, and that's one thing, but we're very, very pleased with the performance we're seeing to date. Some of it is incremental. There is some cannibalization, not unexpected and certainly planned for now in our business model.
Helpful. Thank you. Changing tack just to the SARA feedback and the conditions that they've put in place. I mean, anything you're sort of willing to draw out of that? I mean, through reading the document, it looks like much of the sort of conditions sit around stormwater management, traffic impact assessments, and the like, which I would assume are fairly typical. Is there any sort of detail you can sort of provide on that, on the conditions that they've put in place, please?
Yeah. Look, you've done well to get through it.
It's often quite technical and dry reading, but what I would say is it's a lengthy response, as you've seen. On first blush, you can read these things and have one opinion, but after taking some time and technical analysis, you might have something slightly different. What I would say to you is we're carefully reviewing it in detail. We have some time. There's a statutory period now where the council has a look at their response, and then they make their own decision. I'm not comfortable to give you timeframes anymore. I think our experience to date has been longer than we would have otherwise liked, and I think that's not unusual.
If you follow the Gold Coast Bulletin, you'll see a story in the news yesterday around some fairly prominent actors in the marine sector that have also made clear their views around investment into Queensland and into the Gold Coast. What I would say is it's probably not appropriate just yet to make any public comments on the conditions at this stage, but I can assure you that as we do that analysis, if there's any conditions that we believe are not creative in terms of our efforts to unlock the value of the land, then we certainly will be challenging them, and we'll do that in the usual course. Yeah, at this point in time, as I've outlined in the prepared remarks, it is progress, but we still are quite cautious about it. I suppose we've learned one thing, which is we're very cautious about providing timelines.
Our experience to date has been that all the timelines that we've been working to have managed to blow out for reasons outside of our control.
Helpful. Just last one. Just on the capital program, how would you think about calendar year 2025? I know you've sort of put King Claw out there with a number around it. Just to sort of clarify, how much more sort of spend is flowing from the Rivertown precinct into the second half of 2025 and/or any sort of other sort of modeling we should think about just from a capital expenditure perspective?
Yeah, no problem. I think maybe José can take you through that one and just how we're thinking about half by half.
Yeah, sure. Hi, Allan.
As I mentioned earlier in the presentation, with the fact that Rivertown and Jane's Rivertown Restaurant having been completed and opening literally just on half year round, a day or two before, not all the costs from the villas, etc., have come in. There will be some cash flows in the second half of this year. I estimate that there will be around AUD 3 million-AUD 4 million remaining on that. That is a combination of the timing thing that I have just mentioned around the timing of invoicing, etc., but also some follow-up thematic elements, just some fine-tuning of some of that that has happened post-opening as well. In terms of if I look forward in the next sort of six to 12 months, the only other big thing to call out really is King Claw.
We are looking to open that in the second half of the year, and we do expect the majority of the expenditure to come through on that in the next six months, with a little bit probably in the six months after that. Probably around AUD 9 million-AUD 10 million for that. I'm anticipating all our development CapEx to be in the region of about AUD 13 million-AUD 15 million in the next six months or so, and then maintenance CapEx for the second half of the year to be broadly in line with what we've seen in the first half.
Helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Nicholas McGarrigle from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Just a question around that bulk sale last January.
Did that revenue get booked at the point of sale, or was it similar treatment on those tickets to an annual pass?
Yeah, good question. Sorry, it might not have been clear. That bulk sale was in the first half of the year prior. It was actually in a September period. As for the treatment, over the course of the performance obligation, there was a mix of, to be frank with you, there was a mix of pass and single day. Let me maybe also give you some insights as to how we think about that. Bulk sales are an interesting idea. The notion of potentially bringing revenue in now is, in some ways, a burden in the hand.
At the same time, I don't think it would be unreasonable to suggest that if we're giving an opportunity to give a vendor a bulk sale and there's something in return for us in terms of an injection of capital, then there's obviously some margin implications for that. Our perspective has been that we are doing a lot less of that. We just believe that the business is performing very well, and I think that we believe that we can outperform that at a much higher margin than what we otherwise would. It is certainly a tactical approach from us. We have the optionality to do these things from time to time, and we've taken the view at this point not to do so.
I think so far what we're seeing is that decision founding out to be true, and so far our reseller performance is tracking along quite nicely. José,
thank you. Maybe in—sorry.
Sorry, Nick. I just wanted to see if José, did you have anything else to add to it?
No, no, Greg, I think you covered it pretty well.
Just in January, obviously, very strong performance. Just trying to get a sense of what happened with the cost space period on period. Obviously, January tends to probably be a stronger EBITDA month. I just sort of expected maybe more operating leverage given the very strong revenue growth on PCP. Were there any insurance kind of recoveries or other things that you might have credited to that January last year, just in terms of where the EBITDA growth was?
Yeah, José, did you want to take that one first, and I might add some at the end?
Yeah, sure. Hi, Nick. No, short answer to your question about insurance is no. All the insurance income that we've received thus far year to date was in the first half result, and we've called that out. The January performance that you're seeing is purely the trading performance. You're right that we have a largely fixed cost base, and obviously, January is a very busy month. You can see with some of the uptick in attendances and the like that obviously then that has a higher sort of flow through into the bottom line. A lot of it is due to that sort of operating leverage coming through in the month of January.
Also, just a lesser sort of factor, but also something just to bear in mind, obviously, was that we are accompanying a slightly softer January last year because of the storms. Obviously, the storms did not have so much of an impact on SkyPoint, but they definitely did on Dreamworld and WhiteWater World. However, that prior period was a bit of a mixed month. The first half of January in the prior year was severely impacted by the storms, but then later on in the month, if you recall, the Queensland government announced a stimulus sort of promotion where they gave a lot of the local residents AUD 50 vouchers to spend on local businesses, and we did benefit from that. That helped to recover the result somewhat last year, but overall, it was a slightly softer comp.
Yeah, and I might just add a little bit to that as well. As José outlined and as you're well aware of last year, with the storm activity, we had some challenges, to say the least. I think one of the questions that I recall in last year's half-year presentation was some surprise, I think, from followers around the fact that EBITDA was largely actually fairly robust for January last year given what were more than quite challenging circumstances. I think when I discussed that with investors, what we outlined was the fact that in some ways, the park being closed altogether is a much better situation in terms of us being able to manage cost out than what it would be if it was just otherwise raining.
Last year, we managed to still hold together a reasonable EBITDA result as a result of us being able to close the park as opposed to trading it with fairly difficult weather conditions. We, I can assure you, have done some quite meticulous work around trying to understand certainly some beneficial comp last year and the January performance. In the wash-up of all of that, we're still very pleased with the performance. I think that, as José outlined, there was a number of different factors in last year's results, some significant challenges, and also some benefits in terms of government stimulus. I think on the wash-up of all of that, we're very happy still with the January result.
All right. Great. Thank you.
In terms of the plan from here across the six-year CapEx, I assume looking forward, increments to that broader CapEx plan that was flagged 18 months, two years ago, is that kind of have you kind of laid out a plan for CapEx beyond The Claw now that kind of the bulk of that Rivertown and other precinct work is done?
Yeah, we're always looking at what is next in terms of investment in the organization. As we've outlined, I think, to investors over the last 18 months or so, our view of the world is that Rivertown and the attractions associated with Rivertown represent catch-up and transformational investment. We certainly are looking at other things over the next course of time, but there is certainly nothing in our minds that is anything like the quantum that Rivertown has cost.
The things that we're looking at over time are probably more things a little bit more like The Claw and maybe even less so in terms of things that are catch-up, maintenance-driven types of investments. I want to assure customers, if they're thinking and hearing these calls, that that doesn't mean that we're looking to not invest into the product over time. We think that the quantum of capital that we require, particularly in terms of attraction-generating investment, is something that we're just taking some pause on, and we think that we're moving back to a more typical and regular cadence of less frequent and slightly lower investment over time.
Okay.
There's no kind of King Claw, it's probably one of the bigger, more growth CapEx type investments, and then you kind of return to more of a maybe a high single-digit AUD 10 million a year maintenance CapEx run rate beyond that.
Look, there will always be some, but not anything like the quantum of what. We're contemplating things for several years from now, but they will be nowhere near the quantum of Rivertown. Will we get to a point where we're not every other year putting some kind of development CapEx in and we're only trading on business-as-usual CapEx? Look, I appreciate that that's something that everyone is quite interested in, but at the same time, the trade-off that we're always thinking about is what happens if we don't.
I wouldn't want you to have the view that we're not ever going to, in the next five years, invest in product. That's certainly not the case, but certainly not anything like the quantum that we've vested into Rivertown today.
I mean, have you seen any, I guess you kind of commented on ticket sales, but anything particular around annual pass sales now that Rivertown's done? You mentioned that broadening of the kind of catchment of demographic. Have you seen a tick up in annual pass sales versus what you normally seasonally see through January and February?
Across the board, Nick, in all pass segments, in all ticket segments, we've seen growth. Annual pass has been no exception. As we've outlined, the traditional, it's an interesting situation with annual passes. You see people buying value for the entire year.
They're very, very considerate as to extracting every single part of that value, as everyone would. We really think hard about how much we market new attractions and when we do it, because there's a real risk that people hold their visit until those new attractions open. We're always trying to balance that tightrope as a conversation that we have with the board on a marketing perspective on a regular basis. What we've seen in January or late December is that certainly the annual pass space was very strong, but it increased markedly once the new attractions were actually open. At the end of the day, if you put yourself in the consumer's shoes, it's great to hear all about this new stuff coming, but what's in it for me today to buy a ticket when this thing's opening in three weeks' time?
We believe, and we certainly prosecute the view that our offer is strong every single day of the year. We've got a lot more than just these new attractions. Very strong about certainly Rivertown, but if you read the feedback and again, look at the reviews, there's a lot of feedback about the park offer in general, the breadth of the offer, the quality of the experience, the friendliness of the staff. It is certainly more than just one thing. It's a cumulative piece, but Rivertown certainly has been very helpful in terms of incrementally growing ticket sales across the board.
All right. Thanks for those questions. Appreciate it.
Thank you. The next question comes from Brian Han from Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Greg, how do you think you guys are faring compared to your competitor next door in terms of visitations and maybe even impact revenue per cap?
That's always difficult, Brian. Whilst we're doing this call, our competitor doesn't need to for obvious reasons, but we follow all sorts of different things to try to get a feel for how things are going. We have a rigorous approach to listening tools and looking out there in the market as to what people are saying. One of the most fundamental things that we always do is have a good look at each other's car parks. I know that they do that, and we certainly do, and that's been the case forevermore. Look, I'd say to you that we spend more time worrying about what we're doing than what they are, but early on, our feeling is that we've had a very strong January holiday.
As I've outlined, I think we've outperformed the destination based on the feedback that we've heard from resellers, and our perspective is that we've taken some share over December and January, which is pleasing given Billy Jaws opened a significant piece of new capital investment at Movie World. As you know, it's minutes away from Dreamworld, so it's a very competitive environment. Our perspective is that we've done reasonably well. I would add some structure there that that's to the best of our knowledge and may not be true, but I know everyone likes to speculate as to the competitor's performance. At the end of the day, what we all know is that we don't really know, but that's the best I can give you at the moment.
Okay. Thanks for that.
Can you make some comments on your labor outlook in terms of headcount and inflation over the next year or so?
I'm struggling around theme parks, Brian, as it is. I might struggle to give you too much on that in that space around broader perspective on all that. What I would say to you, I can help you with how we think about headcount and things of that nature. I think we've seen a softening of the employment market. Our ability to attract talent has certainly enhanced over the last six months or so. I think that's a function of the market becoming hungrier, if you will, to work than what it otherwise has required to be. There's always elements within elements of the workforce that are harder to still attract.
I'd say to you that at SkyPoint, potentially, we struggle a little bit more there because it's a very concentrated hospitality environment. We're in the middle of Surfers Paradise. We're competing with every other restaurant and hotel in that market. I can tell you that prior to the pandemic, we had a very good cohort of international students that were good for a number of different reasons, certainly very good consumers, but also provided additional labor as well. SkyPoint, a touch tougher. At Dreamworld, we're certainly not having those kind of issues. In the professional space, I think our view is that we're not really looking to add headcount into the organization. I've been very clear that our approach really is around retaining cost levels to where they are as best we can now.
There will always be some growth with activity, but our strong outlook for the vision of what we're trying to achieve here in terms of returning to historical performance is to grow revenue and try to create operating leverage by holding costs wherever we possibly can. We have got some things that we cannot be as effective on in containing for all the right reasons in terms of safety and engineering. So far, I would say to you that we have no concerns about our future performance as a result of us being unable to procure labor or talent at either of the businesses. As to the economic side of it, Brian, I think you are a lot better than I am at that. I would hesitate to give you any thinking in that. Maybe Gary or José might have a different perspective.
Oh, actually, no, Greg, that's fine because I was talking more about the inflation on your underlying cost base, not about a general challenge.
Okay. Happy to help you with that.
Yeah.
Yeah. Look, we have a very strong view around procurement and the benefit that we are starting to see with some scale back in the business compared to what it was in the early stage of the recovery. Certainly helping us in terms of demonstrating an ability to start reining in procurement costs. I'll give you a very simple example, Brian. If we think about retail, only 18 months ago, we just didn't have the scale, in my view, to do a lot of indent retail buying.
As a result of that, we were buying a lot of local product at what I would say are significant premiums to what we'd otherwise be able to achieve in China. We've had a very considered approach to starting to bring indent in. There's always trade-offs in these kinds of situations, as we know. We are very cautious about inventory holdings and working capital. We are not looking to add significant inventory to the business, but where we've taken a considered view, because we understand sales rates of particular items in the top 30 or 40 items in the retail business, we've managed to achieve very significant, and I would say surprisingly significant, savings in the retail business, just as one example. That scale is certainly helping us, and we continue to work hard on that. Again, in the labor space, it's a difficult space.
I think there's been a significant amount of increase in rates over the last several years. We're not immune to that. We've never suggested that we are. That's moderating, I would say. Again, something that's largely out of our hands. We have a strong view that we work closely with unions and others. They're an important stakeholder as are our team. We're obviously doing our very best to contain costs, but certainly it's a dialogue, as it always is. The best thing I can tell you, Brian, is that our approach to cost, and we've talked about this for several years now, is that we just have a very, very considered approach to costs. There's things in our organization that we have an attitude about safety and engineering.
We've all seen what incredible dilution of value can happen when you take your eye off those things. Those things will always be off the table. We need to be as disciplined as we can in other parts of the business to be able to afford to pay for those priorities.
Thanks, Greg. Lastly, can you remind me, before the pandemic, were Chinese patrons accredited in park revenue per cap? Do you think there'll be a change to this when they do come back soon? Hopefully.
Look, Chinese visitation has typically been dilutionary to revenue per cap, but I'd add the structure to that is that they're ultimately incremental to the business. If you're asking me, is it better to have the Chinese here or not? We absolutely would take them.
The fact of the matter is that Chinese visitation has in the past, historically, come at lower yields, and that's as a result of several factors. I mean, the first one is typically that they don't have the same time in their itinerary that a normal day guest would. They might come in and do some experiences in our animal space. They may well stay for lunch. Because they're not buying the whole day, we've got to position the pricing to be competitive with the market to meet that. Straight away, the headline ticket price is somewhat lower. There's typically a lot of the business that is group business that's done through ATAs, and there's a commission element to that. That's why every Chinese visitation that we have under the older model has been dilutionary per cap. Again, I just stress the point.
That doesn't mean we don't want it because at the end of that is incremental profit to the business overall. What does the outlook look like in terms of China? I think what we're seeing in general across China, India, and most other international segments is certainly a move towards more FIT business. That is a very different proposition. Typically, they're paying retail prices, which means that we're much higher, I think, than the face value ticket price, and then they have the ability to then spend more in park than they would if they're on a limited and shorter and tighter itinerary. I still think that there's still a significant amount of group business that will come out of international markets. Our sales team will tell you that FIT is getting bigger and bigger, and it's true.
I think it's still, if you just step back from all that and look at what's coming in, it's still a significant amount of group. I think that at this point in time, always a little bit dilutionary per cap, but again, I've just stressed the point that we want it. We're out there competing for it. If I take you to Skypoint, though, we have a slightly different perspective on that. At Skypoint, we have capacity constraints. As we bring new international business on, we've really got to be judicious about how we do that.
That might mean that we're limited to that through price, limited to different day parts of the day because the last thing that we want to do is fill the business with international, turn away what has proven to be, over the last few years, a higher spending domestic and local guests, and ultimately see some diminishment in yields as a result of that. Skypoint's a slightly different story. Ultimately, what we would tell you is that we're trying to get the full package. When we talk about our offer with international resellers, Skypoint is actually a very easy sell. People want to go to Skypoint. They want to see the whole experience. Our view is that packaging Skypoint and Dreamworld is something that we've got to be very, very focused on.
That gives us some ability to get higher yields than we otherwise would have. Hopefully, that helps.
Very helpful. Thanks, Greg. I'll see you at Jane's soon.
No problem.
Thank you. We have five minutes remaining. If the remaining question is, please keep this timeframe in mind. The next question comes from David Kingston from K Capital Group. Please go ahead.
Good morning, team. I'll try to be quick. Look, eight years, Gary, after you took the chair, it's good to see some coasters now marginally profitable. Look at AUD 200 million cap. It's a massive tech-like multiple versus the half-year EBITDA of AUD 1.9 million. I accept that Rivertown will deliver growth, but the big issue is whether it's honeymoon spurt or whether it's sustainable. I suppose the big challenge is you spent AUD 120 million on CapEx since taking the chair.
Sad to hear another AUD 13 million -AUD 14 million coming on the floor. We all accept that theme parks chew up a lot of CapEx. They're a massive black hole. If we look at the market, guys, it's very skeptical. It's valuing Dreamworld at around AUD 90 million, which is way under the AUD 120 million CapEx spent. That's pretty simple to work out. AUD 200 million cap, less AUD 37 million on SkyPoint, less roughly AUD 25 million on surplus land. Let's take AUD 50 million off cash, which is allowing for the reduction in payables, which is sitting at AUD 29 million at year-end. Gary, you're renowned for your extreme patience. The shareholders you're representing are getting a bit tired. The price has flatlined for the last two and a half years, and there's been zero dividends. Two questions.
Is this a personal vanity project for you, Gary, or do you think you will deliver a proper TSR for the shareholders? Interested in what your ROIC targets are. Secondly, do you regret not engaging with BGH? We were so when they had a chat to you a few years ago. Thank you.
There is a lot of it. I dispute virtually everything that you have to say, David, for a whole host of reasons. You know full well, having been a student of this industry for some time, exactly what the state of Dreamworld was in. We have had a decade of underinvestment in this park. Overlay that with COVID, and the recovery period has taken longer. It has cost a lot more than anyone had contemplated. The good news is that that is all behind us.
What has occurred here, frankly, is no different to many of the other recovery plays that I have been involved in. The usual outcome ends up being a very satisfactory return for investors. I believe that will be the case here as well. Very comforted by the trajectory that we're on. As you've heard from Greg, we do believe we are retrieving lost market share. I think we are very well placed. Our customers are very pleased with the product, and most certainly the service levels that they experience at our parks. I think the trajectory will continue. As it does, I believe that the market will take increasing interest in that. That will be reflected in hopefully an increasing share price. In any event, we're very comfortable buying back stock at these levels.
Thank you.
Thanks.
I think there was another question according to what I've got. Can we just take that? I am conscious of time, David.
Thank you. The last question comes from Charlie Kingston, private investor. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Maybe just following up from that point, I don't think you answered the ROIC target and given the amount that you have spent. If we look at the numbers, AUD 8 million or AUD 4 million EBITDA, if we annualize that, less your overheads, less the maintenance CapEx, notwithstanding all that CapEx that you have spent, we are still losing money on a free cash flow basis. We have The Claw.
Given that the targets that you did present eight years ago, Gary, I think it would be fair to your shareholders eight years later to actually give us some targets as to what you think you can deliver on the CapEx that you have spent and are going to spend going forward. I think that would be more than fair to give us an actual target. Second to that,
I'm just conscious of time, Charlie.
No, no.
We're on record as saying that our goal is to get back to at least historical levels of earnings. This CapEx, as Greg described, a lot of it has been catch-up capital as a result of underinvestment, significant underinvestment in the park over an extended period of time. Capital that's gone in will generate its return.
The ink is barely dry on Rivertown, but we're already seeing some of the benefits. We are comfortable in believing that we will get back to at least historical level of earnings over coming periods. That being the host, any other questions that we have?
Confirming at this time we're showing no further questions. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.