Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Coast Entertainment Holdings Limited Annual General Meeting 2025. I would now like to hand the conference over to Dr. Gary Weiss, Chairman. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Annual General Meeting of Coast Entertainment Holdings Limited, which this year, as you're well aware, is being held here at Dreamworld. I'm Gary Weiss, and Chairman of Coast Entertainment. For those attending in person, welcome to Dreamworld. We're truly delighted to showcase to you today our latest world-class attractions, including the crown jewel of Rivertown, which you've walked through to get to the restaurant. Featuring our new Jungle Rush family coaster, Murrissippi Motors , and of course, Jane’s Rivertown Restaurant. As in previous years, this AGM has been conducted in a hybrid format to allow shareholders to participate either in person or virtually via the online platform. Before I formally open the meeting, I will ask our Company Secretary, Chris Todd, to outline some procedural matters on today's meeting for those who are joining virtually. Chris.
Thanks, Gary, and good morning, shareholders in the room and those online. As Gary mentioned, today's meeting is being conducted in a hybrid format, allowing those not present in the room to attend virtually online via the AGM online platform. For those attending virtually, I just want to set out a couple of procedural matters for you. If you experience any technical issues during the meeting, there is a published virtual meeting guide on the website, which includes details on how to seek assistance. Shareholders who are online will have the opportunity to ask questions via the virtual meeting platform. Those in the room will also have an opportunity to ask questions.
If you are a shareholder or proxy attorney or corporate representative of a shareholder and you wish to ask a question online about a particular item of business, please click the icon "Ask a Question" on your screen, select the particular item of business your question relates to, and then click "Submit Question" once you've typed your question. If you already have a question prepared, please feel free to submit it on the platform now so that we can consider it as and when we come to that particular relevant agenda item. You don't need to wait until we get to the relevant item of business. At the conclusion of the meeting, we will endeavor to respond to any shareholder questions of a general nature that may not have been addressed in the business update by Gary or Greg, or if we consider that a response would benefit all shareholders. Finally, a recording of today's meeting will be available on our website later this afternoon. I'll now hand back to Gary to formally open the AGM.
Thank you, Chris. I now confirm that the quorum is present, and I declare the meeting open. It is my pleasure to introduce you to the members of the Coast Entertainment Board in attendance today. On my left, I'm joined by David Haslingden and Jemma Elder, and joining us on the phone from the U.S. are Directors Randy Garfield and Erin Wallace. I would also like to welcome members of the executive team, Greg, Group Chief Executive Officer, and José De Sacadura, Group Chief Financial Officer, who are both with us today. The Group's auditor, BDO Audit Pty Ltd, represented by Nigel Batters, is also in attendance at Dreamworld today and is available to answer questions in relation to the FY 2025 auditor's report. The format for today's meeting will be as follows.
I will begin by providing some opening remarks outlining the key activities and performance highlights of the group for the year, and will then hand over to Greg to provide a more detailed update on the performance of the business. We will then move to the formal business of the meeting and put to shareholders the resolutions set out in the Notice of Meeting. All resolutions to be put to the meeting today will be decided by way of poll. Shareholders attending the meeting will be able to cast their vote using ballot papers if attending in person, or the electronic voting card received when your online registration is validated if attending online. Further information and assistance with online voting can be found in the virtual meeting guide available on the Group's website. FY 2025 marked a period of significant transformation and momentum for the Group.
Despite broader macroeconomic challenges, particularly across the retail and discretionary spending sectors, we delivered a strong operational and financial performance, highlighting the resilience of our business model. These strategic investments made by the Group in recent years have begun to deliver tangible results, particularly with the successful launch of Rivertown last December. This major attraction, which was delivered on time and within budget, has resonated well with our guests and played a key role in delivering a stronger second-half performance in FY 2025. Looking ahead, the upcoming opening of the new King Claw attraction this December is expected to add further momentum to the business. During the FY 2025 year, the Group saw a 10.5% uplift in ticket sales and 11.2% growth in visitation, with both being well above pre-COVID levels.
This, combined with a growing annual parcel to base and an unwavering focus on delivering excellent guest experiences, helped drive operating revenue of $ 96.4 million, our strongest since FY 2016. Notably, key commercial areas such as food and beverage, retail, and experiences exceeded FY 2016 levels. This strong trading performance resulted in our best EBITDA result for the Theme Parks and Attractions business since FY 2016, at $ 8.8 million or 19.4% above the prior year. At the Group level, consolidated EBITDA reached $ 4.1 million, representing a 275% increase compared to the prior year. Other notable achievements include a further significant reduction in corporate costs, the finalization of insurance claims related to the FY 2024 summer storms, and the completion of our second on-market share buyback. We now enter the new financial year with a strong balance sheet, no debt, and a healthy cash position.
Pleasingly, the positive trading momentum has continued into FY 2026 with robust ticket sales and visitation over the first four months. It is now my pleasure to invite Greg to provide a further update on the performance of the business. Following this update, we will move to the formal business of the meeting.
Thanks, Gary. Good morning, everyone. Great to see some friendly faces, and hopefully everyone's very friendly today here at Dreamworld. Really great to see you here at the park to see what we've been doing over the last little while. As you're aware, the Group has provided a very comprehensive summary of the FY 2025 results at our recent presentation in August. Today, I'm going to highlight some of the key points from those results. I think more importantly, provide an update on trading performance for the first four months of the year. We will turn to slide six, and this presentation page really summarizes our key successes in FY 2025. I'd like to just take a brief moment to highlight a few of these. Firstly, our guest satisfaction scores remain consistently high and are tracking above the prior year, which had already a strong benchmark.
This is supported by strong attraction operating uptime of 98%, reflecting our commitment to safety and, moreover, to delivering a high-quality guest experience, which is a core pillar of our recovery strategy. A reliability rate of that quantum is as good, if not better, than any theme park that I've seen both locally here in Australia and internationally. It's encouraging to see that this performance, together with our enhanced, refreshed theme park offering, including new attractions, enhanced guest experiences, and the various strategic initiatives that we've put into play, are clearly resonating with our guests. We're seeing strong growth in our annual passholder base, with sales now exceeding FY 2016 and substantially improved retention rates, which are a strong indicator of growing loyalty and sustained engagement.
While this momentum may not be immediately visible in the revenue that we'll talk about today, due to the recognition of annual park revenue over time, it is particularly pleasing to note that F&B, retail, experience, and function revenue have already exceeded FY 2016 levels for the year. For FY 2025, this demonstrates the strength of the in-park spending and the continued demand for our offerings. On slide seven, we're showing Rivertown, which opened in December this year, December last year. This new family area has undoubtedly been the highlight of our year and a real game- changer for Dreamworld.
The area includes, as Gary mentioned earlier, the Jungle Rush family coaster, Murrissippi Motors, a reimagined version of the classic vintage car ride, and where you are today for the people at Dreamworld, Jane’s Rivertown Restaurant, which provides an enhanced food and beverage offering and plays an important role not only in F&B but in our conferencing, events, and international guest strategy. Rivertown comprises Dreamworld’s most thematic attractions ever built. It is a complete, comprehensive reimagining of the Dreamworld experience, designed as an immersive, intergenerational space that appeals to guests of all ages. As Gary also mentioned, it was delivered on time and on budget, despite its complexity and despite a very challenging construction environment here in Queensland. That reflects the outstanding work of both our teams internally and our external partners.
Since opening, Rivertown has received overwhelmingly positive feedback, demonstrating its success in elevating both the guest experience and visitation, and has been a strong driver of momentum across all key revenue metrics. Slide eight summarizes the Group's financial performance for the FY 2025 year, which was characterized by continued solid trading performance and growing momentum despite cost- of- living pressures and weather-related disruptions. This performance was covered in detail back in August 2025. However, I'll just recap on some of the key performance highlights. Building on the already strong results from FY 2024 and FY 2023, ticket sales for FY 2025 rose 10.5% for the year. Notably, following the opening of Rivertown, we saw an acceleration in growth, with second-half growth in ticket sales increasing to 15.1%. Similarly, visitation increased 11.2% compared to the prior year, with stronger growth in the second half of the year despite a temporary closure.
The Easter holiday trading disruption that we saw as a result of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. As a result, operating revenue grew 10.8% to $ 96.4 million, and second-half growth accelerated by 11.9% despite the business cycle and the launch of Kenny & Belinda's Dreamland in the second half of FY 2024. Additionally, deferred revenue increased by 4.8% to $ 12.7 million as of balance date in June 2025. Driven by continued growth in the annual passholder base and high guest retention rates. As revenue recognition for annual passes is spread over the 12 months of the performance obligation, we obviously and generally see a lag in the value of ticket sales for which the cash is received upfront.
Finally, the net result was that EBITDA continued to improve, growing 19.4% versus the prior year, reflecting the growth in revenue and clearly some increased operating leverage on a largely fixed cost base. International visitation is continuing to slowly recover, but it does remain below pre-COVID levels, with overseas inbound visitation to the Gold Coast region in FY 2025 down 41% compared to FY 2019 and China visitation down 80% to the Gold Coast. That is concerning, but it does present significant upside for the business as international markets continue to recover. Turning to slide nine, the Group has recorded a strong start to FY 2026, with positive momentum continuing across the business.
During the first four-month year-to-date period ending October 2025, so only just last week, ticket sales were up 54% year-on-year, driven by the cumulative effect of new attractions, which we have launched over the last 12- 24 months, as well as a number of successful targeted promotional campaigns. Notably, the year-to-date ticket sales have also increased and exceeded FY 2016 levels, albeit that there has been a change in the ticketing mix, intentional, reflecting a shift towards a higher proportion of annual passes. This has driven a 35% increase in visitation, with October year-to-date attendance from local markets now surpassing FY 2016 levels, again a clear sign of momentum shifting in a positive way. Pleasingly, we've achieved record-breaking attendance during the October school holidays, even surpassing the levels that we saw when Rivertown first launched in December and January earlier this year.
In the past, we've often called out when adverse weather has impacted performance, and I think it's important in a similar mind to note when weather has been a tailwind. If you're here from the Gold Coast, you would know that there was very favorable weather, and that played a big part in the uplift that we've seen in FY 2026 so far. Total rainfall for the current year-to-date period of 237 millimeters and, more importantly, 19 rain-affected days was lower than the 336 millimeters we saw last year and the 28 affected days that we saw in the prior period for the same time. These improved weather conditions were helpful in driving stronger visitation and in-park spending. Operating revenue for October year-to-date increased by 20%. As mentioned previously, revenue tends to lag ticket sales due to the timing of revenue recognition for passes.
As a result, the Group's deferred revenue balance further increased as at the end of October 2025. It was 58% higher than the prior corresponding period. Due to the attendance growth, in-park revenue for the first four months of 2026 has increased by 25%, providing a strong indicator of improved economic activity in park. EBITDA for the year-to-date period, excluding specific items, has improved by 94%. This result for the first four months since FY 2016. SkyPoint once again has achieved record revenue and EBITDA results. I should emphasize that these numbers are unaudited, and while we are pleased with the performance in the year so far, we have much of the year to go. In particular, we are mindful of cycling a period which predates the opening of Rivertown, and therefore current trading conditions should not be taken as a guide to future performance.
The performance of the business also remains susceptible to external factors such as weather and economic conditions. In September, we launched WILD with Australian Geographic, and I hope you will get a chance to see that today. That is a reimagined wildlife precinct featuring immersive experiences such as our 45-minute Our Country cinematic show and habitats for native species, reinforcing Dreamworld's very strong commitment to wildlife education, conservation, and, more importantly, inspiring future generations to protect Australia's biodiversity. With the return of Big Brother to Dreamworld also imminent, you'll see a bit of that today. The first episode does air this Sunday at 7:00 P.M. on Channel 10 if you are interested in watching. These projects are all expected to enhance Dreamworld's brand visibility. Slide 10 shows that our momentum continues to build, as illustrated by the rolling 12-month performance for October 2025.
As I mentioned back in August, this momentum is not fully reflected in the reported revenue due to the accounting treatment of passes. While we do not recognize the revenue upfront, we are seeing that difference, and you can see it clearly in higher cash inflows and a growing deferred revenue balance. To get a clearer indication, we have been tracking several leading indicators, as you can see on the screen. Particularly attendance, in-park spends across food, beverage, retail, and experiences, all of which continue to outperform historical benchmarks. And as you can see since Rivertown opened, we have seen a significant lift in performance, particularly during the school holiday periods in April, July, and October, which has further strengthened Dreamworld's rolling 12-month results.
We are particularly encouraged by the fact that we are not just seeing growth out of the growing performance base, but we are seeing that growth accelerate over time. Let me just give you a few highlights. Firstly, Dreamworld ticket sales for the 12 months to October 2025 were up 31% compared to the same time last year, which is building on the 10.5% previously reported for the 12 months to June. Dreamworld's attendance rose 27% over the same 12-month period, accelerating from 15% that we reported back in June. Dreamworld's in-park revenue for the 12 months to October grew 23%, again up from the 17% we reported for the year in June. Importantly, this momentum is not due to one silver bullet like Rivertown, but it's the culmination of a multi-year focus on guest experience, operations, and the product offering, and that is now delivering consistent and repeatable performance.
As I've mentioned before, we are seeing higher guest satisfaction scores. We're seeing a growing and more engaged passholder base, stronger guest retention rates, and we're pleasingly starting to see increase in improved interstate visitation, particularly from New South Wales and Victoria. I'd like to mention out of Brisbane as well, despite relatively limited marketing in the southern states. We're starting to address that this year. Early indications of our enhanced marketing work, which is still in its early inception, is proving to be very, very promising. Looking ahead, we still see significant further upside as international visitation continues to recover back to pre-COVID levels. Slide 11 offers a preview of our new attraction, King Claw, which remains on track to open by the end of this calendar year.
Construction for the ride has now achieved practical completion, with pre-launch testing now in progress and theming elements being finalized. King Claw is a bigger, a faster, and a higher capacity successor to the Claw. It will be the largest gyro swing in the Southern Hemisphere, setting a new benchmark for thrill rides in our region. We are confident it will serve as another major draw card for guests and further strengthen Dreamworld's positioning as a leading entertainment destination. Excitingly, I think, at the conclusion of today's presentation, members of our executive team will be conducting a tour of the park, and we will be doing a behind-the-scenes tour at King Claw to show you exactly where we're up to. Slide 12 provides an update on our land development application process.
As we've previously announced, on the 1st of September 2025, the Queensland Deputy Premier, who is also the Minister for State Development, Infrastructure, and Planning, issued the Group with a proposed call-in notice regarding its development application and invited written submissions from interested stakeholders. Following consideration of those submissions, the Minister has issued the company with a statutory call-in notice advising that he will call in the application. The effect of the call-in is that the Minister himself will now assess and decide the application in place of the local council. The timeframe for the Minister's final decision on the application is unknown, and at this time, the Group has not made any serious decisions or commitments regarding the proposed use of the land should the application be approved.
As previously advised, we'll continue to assess all options to ensure maximum benefit for our shareholders and will continue to provide updates to the market as information becomes available. Slide 13. Slide 13 outlines some of the very clear business fundamentals that continue to underpin our performance and provide a solid foundation for future long-term value creation. We maintain a debt-free balance sheet with strategic levers such as significant unrecognized tax losses, which provide clearly a valuable tax shield over the medium term. Owned property assets that we believe are undervalued on the balance sheet, particularly at Dreamworld, given its location in one of Australia's highest growth corridors and clearly ahead of the 2032 Olympics. The opportunity to derive higher and more meaningful value from our land holdings in Coomera is significant.
As the famous quote suggests, "Nothing in the world worth having comes easy," and I think the journey to date on the land could be characterized in this regard. However, under a rejuvenated state government that is working hard to make Queensland competitive on the global stage, we are starting to see real momentum. I am very confident that our efforts in this endeavor will deliver value to stakeholders. Our guests will benefit from additional world-class product offerings. Southeast Queensland will benefit in terms of additional amenity, infrastructure, and jobs. Our people will have more opportunity to grow their careers within our organization. Importantly, our shareholders will see an uplift in value as a result. Our targeted investment and operational discipline have driven meaningful improvement, returning us to profitability with clear organic momentum. Brand strength is growing.
Through strategic collaborations, as I've mentioned, Big Brother, and the new partnership with Australian Geographic broadening our audience. Now that we believe our product offering is in good shape, we expect to redouble our efforts in sales and marketing in order to tell what we believe is a very good story to our addressable markets. Our clear strategy focuses on delivering sustainable, long-term value for guests, for shareholders, and for stakeholders moreover. I believe we're in the strongest position yet to realize that potential. As I come to a close, I think it's very important to state that there is absolutely no complacency nor hubris in this team. Whilst we are very pleased to see the recovery taking shape, that also means that many of our guests are returning for the first time to our properties in a long time.
It is constantly on my mind how important it is to make sure that they have a safe, enjoyable experience with us and make very special memories here with us and their families. To that end, execution is arguably as important as it has ever been during this journey. I can assure you that as our owners, our focus on that remains unrelenting. Finally, I want to thank our dedicated team, whose passion and commitment to safety and service underpin our success. I'll now hand back to Gary to conduct the formal business of the meeting.
Thank you, Greg. We will now move to the formal business of the meeting. The resolutions for consideration today may only be voted on by shareholders, proxy holders, and shareholder company representatives. I propose to call a poll on each of the resolutions. As a reminder, shareholders attending via the online platform will have the opportunity to ask questions on each matter being put to the meeting. If you have questions already prepared, please go ahead and submit them now. The first item of ordinary business is to receive the annual financial report, the director's report, and the independent external auditor's report for the company for the financial year ended 24 June 2025. The remuneration report will be put to a vote for adoption separately. Are there any questions from those persons present in relation to the annual financial report, the director's report, or the independent external auditor's report? Any questions in the room? Yep.
My name is Spencer Wright.
Ms. Spencer.
My name is Spencer Wright and shares in Coast in my personal capacity and through Kobe Wright Proprietary Limited as trustee for the Light Family Trust. I think that the strategy that the board has put in place and that the executive leadership team has been executing has been excellent. We are starting to see that bear fruit. I think congratulations on that. A few things in relation to the annual report. When I went to WhiteWater World, it was disgustingly busy. My metrics show that your satisfaction rating at WhiteWater World had decreased, probably because it has become so busy. You look at all the reviews. Hour-long line, hour-long line, hour-long line. Is there an opportunity to increase how much WhiteWater World is open? Obviously, it used to be open pretty much all year.
Now it's only a fraction, maybe more profitable because of annual parcel holders, and we want to keep the cost down. But I think short-term, great. Long-term, we need to make sure that satisfaction rating's up. Dreamworld, obviously, is sky-high satisfaction rating. Let's keep that up, obviously. I don't want to just be all compliments. That would be my first question on whether there's opportunity there at WhiteWater World to improve that satisfaction rating and to get those lines down somehow. And also, Greg mentioned about the undervalue of the balance sheet. Just the thoughts on, obviously, SkyPoint on our balance sheet at $ 10.6 million on a cost-value ratio. Is there any desire to move back to the fair value ratio so we can get a better book value ratio and get more shareholders interested in Coast?
I'll take the second question first, and hopefully, José will rapidly correct me when I'm wrong. In terms of the carrying value of SkyPoint, that carrying value is dictated by accounting standards. We're not able to revalue that asset formally within our accounts. What we did do was procure an independent valuation about 18 months ago or so to provide shareholders with at least some guide as to what an independent valuation of that asset might be. In terms of Dreamworld and WhiteWater World, there is scope as the business recovers, as I understand, to potentially write back values that have been written down, particularly since the period following FY 2016. José, perhaps you can.
Yeah. You've said.
Confirm or deny that.
Yeah. No. Our accounting policy is to account on a historic cost basis. Under that type of accounting, you cannot apply fair value measurements. As Gary pointed out, we have in the past impaired those assets, and we are able to reverse those impairments to what the assets would have been had they not been impaired. It would go back to a full historic cost unimpaired, but not to its fair value. What we have done in the past and may do in the future is potentially disclose what the fair value is, even if it is not necessarily reflected on the balance sheet. As Gary pointed out, SkyPoint got valued 18 months ago. The fair value, I think, at that point was $ 37 million, which is obviously much higher than the $ 10 million or so carrying amount in the balance sheet.
Obviously, Dreamworld hasn't been valued for quite a while. As you know, there's a land development sort of process underway. There'd probably be little utility in getting it valued right now, and I think we sort of wait for the outcome of that. At that point, we will probably look to get something done and potentially disclose that to the market. Needless to say, I mean, the carrying value of Dreamworld assets on the balance sheet is well south of $230 million or $ 240 million that it was last valued at back in 2016 or so. Yeah.
Yeah. If I could also just add another asset which we have called out are our tax losses. Because we haven't been in a tax-paying position, we're unable to recognize any part of those losses. Then again, José, subject to you correcting me potentially, as we generate otherwise taxable income, there would ought to be the potential to start recognizing the value of those tax losses on the balance sheet. We do try in our presentations to call out to investors some of these assets that are genuine assets, but the full value of which are not reflected in statutory accounts. Greg, on the Water Park .
Good. Hi, Spencer. Good to see you. Let me start off with this. I think as I've mentioned in the presentation, we're quick to talk about weather when it's poor and then when weather's good. We should tell you at the same time when we've got tailwinds that are helping us along. I think it is clear that the challenge, the opportunity, the obligation before us is to make sure that as we trade stronger, we continue to deliver a quality guest experience. It's very good when I talk to you about the guest experience when we're not so busy, look two years ago and go, "Well, look at what we're doing. Fantastic work." The test will come now as we start to get busier. You're 100% right on what's happening at WhiteWater World. It is on our minds.
Let me give you an insight and give you all as owners an insight into how we think about this. Every time we get a Google review, which has got one star, everyone on the executive team, including myself, gets an email. We are very aware about WhiteWater World and some of that concern that's going on in those peak days. I would say, and this is far from an excuse, but it's a very low base. When you get a very small amount of reviews, typically what happens is people don't have a good day, give you a review, and that brings the rating down. That's mathematics, and that's not an excuse by any stretch. There are a number of different things that we're working on at WhiteWater World to improve the guest experience.
I'm very comfortable with the park in terms of how it's presented. I'm very comfortable with the people and the service. What we're not doing well enough is getting the throughput. That comes from a few different things. In water parks, you want to just get as many people as you can in the water for as long as you possibly can. Because when you're going on slides on busy days, there's a fairly long wait to get down a 90-second attraction. As you're well aware, it takes some time for us to bring new attractions online. We're also very carefully considering future attractions in the organization. We're thinking about what that would mean.
I would say to owners at the moment that we're not about to go and announce any new attractions at WhiteWater World in the very near future, although we are considering the mix. I think we've demonstrated at Dreamworld that as we've thought about new attractions into the future, we've thought about them with a long-term lens, and we've added things that bring new capacity into the parks as opposed to just one-on-one replacements. That is on our minds at WhiteWater World, but there are other levers that we can take. Some of those you've alluded to, which I'm in fierce agreement on around trading hours and trading days. We are looking at that and reviewing that as we speak. I don't have anything to say on it just yet today, but we do anticipate to do some of those things.
One of the challenges that I think can come with a focus on operating leverage, which we have a very clear focus on operating leverage, I've said to you all, the notion here is to grow revenue for a fixed-cost business, but at the same time, we need to find a way to contain the cost base and ensure that we can pay for our priorities. If you come into our offices, there's no one here at night emptying our rubber sponge and wiping down the desks. That's the executive team. That's what we do. We have a very clear focus on cost. The reason for that is we've got very strong priorities around safety, engineering, and operational safety. I say to our team, that's about being prudent and disciplined in this part of the business to ensure we can pay for our priorities.
The risk is that we sometimes get overzealous on that, and we lose sight of ultimately what we're about here, which is making sure that we get a very strong guest experience. Your point's well made. I am absolutely onto it. It's a conversation that we're having internally right now. You can validate that. Michelle Erasmus, Director of Operations, has been walking groups around today, and I can tell you that she's laser-focused on it as well. We will be doing some things in that regard over the coming holiday period.
Noel?
Noel Ambler, the Australian Shareholders Association.
Sorry, Noel, we're going to give you a microphone.
I can speak close to it. Okay. Firstly, Gary, obviously, congratulations on achieving very good results up to today after the debacle and the tragedies you've had over the last eight or nine years. I think all of the board deserve a pat on the back because it's been a really, really long, hard hill to climb, and I believe you've now sort of got to the top of it. We can look forward to hopefully some fairly good news as shareholders in what your plans for the future are. So if possible, if you have a little bit of time just to probably give us a bit of an outline of how you're looking to the future a little bit, particularly in your total shareholder return and the.
Attractions you intend to bring online, and more importantly, the development of the 55 hectares, because that's a rather substantial investment. Please go ahead and give us shareholders some good news.
We're here to try. Noel, and thank you. And for shareholders present and online, I met Noel shortly after I invited myself onto the board of the old Ardent Lei sure. And Noel was head of the—what was the correct name of the organization? Australian. And my inbox started to fill up with emails from Noel complaining about the state of Ardent Bowling and other assets in Australia. So we've known each other since then. I think, Noel, you've remarked to me on more than a few occasions that you were astounded when we successfully sold those operations to Time Zone at a value of $ 160 million, which was 32x EBITDA. That was a terrific deal to have done. Even though the share price performance has been extremely disappointing, I do want to also highlight other achievements that we've.
Succeeded in delivering for this group, and particularly what was the company's largest asset, which was Main Event Entertainment. Main Event Entertainment had endured six quarters of negative like-for-like sales growth. We then changed management. Over a period of time, about four years, we doubled the EBITDA of that business. We sold it to a company called Dave & Buster's at an 8.5x EBITDA multiple for $850 million in cash. As I was, I think, noting to a couple of the guys in the conversation today, it is noteworthy that at the time, Dave & Buster's paid us $850 million in cash. Dave & Buster's itself was valued on the market at $1.5 billion. Today, at its current share price, Dave & Buster's is valued at $500 million.
We picked literally the top of the market in terms of consumer sentiment and in terms of relevant multiples. Of course, that gave us the capital to provide a return of $ 0.95 to shareholders, with the balance having to be invested back into Dreamworld and WhiteWater World. Those assets, again, as you know, Noel, had been materially underinvested in for an extended period of time. The good news is, who can forget that, playing this all out against the backdrop of a coronial inquiry, which created some very, very damaging publicity for Dreamworld, against the backdrop of a class action, which again, we had to contend with. But I am very pleased to say that we have navigated through those very choppy waters. I think there is a lot to be confident about the future.
We have a first-class management team, and I'm not just saying that because Greg and the team are here. They are recognized not only within Australia but internationally as one of the best operating teams for theme parks in the world. I should call out the fact that we have two extremely qualified directors, U.S.-based directors, Randy and Erin, who know the theme park industry backwards. I know they rate the team here very highly. Indeed, Erin, after her first visit, sent me a note to say that she believed that the team here were as good, if not better, than any team she worked with during her long time at Disney, which is, I think, a pretty substantial accolade. So here we are today, where the bulk of the major investment needed to restore the reputation of Dreamworld has been spent.
Clearly, as we go forward, there will be ongoing CapEx requirements, but it will not be at the size and the pace at which we have been doing this over the last few years. The big opportunity clearly is not only to get back our profitability to at least levels that we saw between FY 2012 and FY 2016, but as you have highlighted, our land holdings do represent, in our view, a very, very significant opportunity. Now, we cannot assure anyone here that there will be a successful outcome to the call and application, but we do believe, as Greg indicated, that we have strong support from the state government, who are very keen to ensure that Queensland remains the tourism capital of Australia. And the ability for us to deliver much-needed infrastructure and other entertainment and other options in the fastest-growing region of the country is well recognized.
So we are in a strong position. As we've indicated, we do not have any debt. We have a strong cash position, and as the CapEx requirements ameliorate, we would hope to be in a position to start generating free cash flow. I think at that stage, all options are open. I have been, like many of you, a long-standing shareholder in this group. I want a return as much as anyone else does. But we needed to make the extensive investments that we have made in order to be able to create a long-term asset of substantial value for our investors. So, Greg, is there anything you want to add to that?
I think it's very well covered. I think, Noel, the land situation clearly is on every investor's mind. I think investors have different approaches around valuation, which are very clear. The difficult thing for investors, which we absolutely recognize, is what is the land worth? Let me just put it simply: there are elements of the land that we are working on today that are part of our application, which we believe, if we do get the approvals that we are desiring, have to be an accelerator of value. If you think about it clearly, I've got areas of the park here, four, five hectares out the back. The only thing you can do today on that land is build a roller coaster, a ride, or some tourism-associated infrastructure. We have no intentions to do that.
We've come to the view, and I think we've got an experienced team here, which is relatively qualified to be able to make those kind of views, that we don't need to make the theme park any bigger than what it is today. We've thought that out over the next 10, 15, 20 years. There's plenty of opportunity here. If we had the view to increase the attraction count and other things, it's big enough. What can we do with this land? Clearly, getting some additional use cases makes sense. That completely changes the valuation perspective on some of these elements of the land. We have a view as to what the highest and best use is of that land. As Gary's mentioned, our view has been very much focused on, let's achieve the valuation, let's achieve the planning approvals that are desired.
If you've been a long-standing holder in Ardent previously, this has been a discussion forever. We've never been closer than where we are right now to getting those approvals. We're not there yet. We can't give you any confidence that we'll absolutely get there. I think you can all see that there has been some significant momentum to date. I think if we can achieve those changes, that gives us significant optionality. We've turned our minds to how we would crystallize value. We've turned our minds there enough to be able to make sure that this is a prudent process to go on with. We've obviously committed several years of executive effort and some degree of capital towards these approvals with consultants and other things. We've done that because we see the value.
We're not yet ready to talk about how we'll crystallize that value because we want to make sure we get the first thing done first, which is achieve this approval.
Any other questions? Yep. Thanks.
Thanks. My name's Richard Logan. I'm a shareholder. I read in the Courier Mail a while ago about a Supreme Court case that Pico Play brought against us for about $0.5 million on the latest development last year. A couple of questions. Curious to know why I had to read about that in the paper and not find anything about that. I didn't read every word of the annual report. I guess it wasn't in that year anyway. It was since then. I heard no announcements, heard nothing. Just curious to know why that wasn't announced at all. Also, we had a long relationship with Pico Play, I think. Obviously, that relationship's probably come to an end. Is that going to have any effect on the future development or whatever of the park?
Good.
Let me start. I might ask Chris to talk about the obligations that are upon us in terms of disclosure. We've obviously thought about that relevantly. I'm not here to denigrate any of our partners. My responsibility is to represent holders and the company. If I believe that we've not achieved the value that we should have achieved under a contract, then it's my obligation to pursue that. I am very strongly of that belief. That's where we are at the moment. Pico Play are one of many theming vendors. I'm not concerned about whether we'll be able to deliver quality of theming on future projects. We're doing that just now at King Claw, and I'm not concerned at all in terms of what we'll achieve there.
I need to be reasonably prudent about what we're talking about because it is a subject of discussions in a legal context. I would say to you this, I have no desire to commit time, resources, and effort towards legal cases unless I felt there was a clear obligation on the executive team to be able to pursue. Where we believe we haven't received what was committed to us under contract. I think what you will see here at Rivertown is a very, very well-executed project. If you were to know the things that we still haven't got and the things that I'm very keen to deliver, which I believe we've paid for, I think the project could be 20% better again. Hopefully, you can understand. I'm not trying to be.
Opaque about it, but I'm not looking to go and spend time on legal cases or money on legal cases unless I felt very strongly that it was the right thing to do on behalf of holders. Chris, did you want to say anything?
I'm guessing King Claw is a different company, a different.
You're right. Yeah.
Thank you for the question. I'll just add a little bit to what Greg said. I think it's fair to say that when you read things in the media, the way it's portrayed is not quite what it is. We put out a response in relation to the same. In particular, like any building project, there's always defects. There's always work that wasn't completed properly. There's always some finalization of payments. What Pico Play have done is, as you've properly read, it's sought an adjudication under a statutory piece of building legislation in Queensland. They haven't litigated against us in the normal commercial sense. The Supreme Court matter was actually we were a party to it, but it was a matter against the adjudicator who found that he had no jurisdiction to actually deal with their claim because they had performed unlicensed building work.
What the Supreme Court, and the newspaper did not report it quite like that. In short, what it was, it was a decision to have the adjudicator's decision that he had no jurisdiction overturned and go back to square one and commence a fresh adjudication. As Greg said, there is work that was not either completed or completed properly, and it cost us money to fix it. From our point of view, we do not actually have a liability to them that is material that would warrant a disclosure to the market. It is really just finalization of a building contract, the usual back and forth. It has been going on for a while. The media picked up the Supreme Court matter, again, regarding the adjudication, sorry, the jurisdictional point.
We, as Greg said, are having discussions with Pico Play to try and resolve that in a way that ensures we get the final defects completed. They are satisfied with final payment due to them. It is far from a material matter.
Let's just simplify the issue here. These things can become quite adversarial. At the end of the day, there's a payment claim. We haven't made that payment because we don't believe that we're obligated to do so for reasons that we've disclosed. It's as simple as that. Again, we don't take these decisions lightly. It's a use of executive management, and we update the board on these matters. We much prefer to focus on running theme parks than doing these kind of things. We're only doing it because we feel that we're representing everyone's best interests. Noel?
Noel Amler from the Australian Shareholders Association. Again, in the financials, I noticed on the repairs and maintenance, it was up more than $ 1 million. I'm the last person who's going to complain about spending money on repairs and maintenance. However, if clarification in some cases hasn't been repaired rather than replaced. When it comes to your maintenance, do you have a difference between your normal maintenance, like clipping the hedges, and the preventative maintenance of checking components, even bearings, all sorts of things, which are not seen but can cause a disaster? The last thing we want to hear at any stage is a ride to fail or even worse. Can you please just give me a little bit of a breakdown on how you're handling repairs and maintenance? I am not complaining about the extra $ 1 million.
Your point is well noted, Noel. I'm going to make a start, and then José, you might want to add some color around the actual number. I think the first thing to say here is that theme parks are large, complex, asset-heavy environments. What comes from that is that you get fairly bumpy and lumpy spends from time to time. You have a particular component on one attraction fail, and that could be $ 300,000-$ 400,000 in one instance. The other thing I'd say, and I make this very clear, is that we've made a very clear commitment around attraction uptime. Now, attraction uptime is not about making sure rides are running because management are putting pressure on maintenance or operations to keep the rides open, far from it.
If you look at—and again, the board has made it clear that their proxy for us in terms of good safety is aviation—reliability is not only about making sure that we're giving guests what they want, but it is absolutely a clear leading indicator as to potential safety issues along the way. We've made a very clear commitment to making sure that we invest to reduce our maintenance obligation in terms of durations and in terms of frequency. Let me give you maybe a pertinent example. If I think about an attraction that has several different ride units on it, we can close that attraction for its annual maintenance and close it for six weeks if we were to have on hand in stock.
Two of those particular ride units on hand, you can imagine that I can hot swap them straight onto the ride, and that reduces the maintenance duration by a degree. In our minds, and there is a very clear linkage between the guest experience and the customer sentiment and the uptime and the availability of attractions. It is amazing, I know, but some people come here for the attractions. For us, we are very clearly linking our maintenance spend to reliability and also to uptime across the board. In terms of how we think about different elements of the maintenance, the other thing that we are trying to do—and I think you can see this today when you tour the park—is that we have tried to be quite strategic about how we have invested capital over the medium term. We are not there yet.
I think if you look at Rivertown, for example. You probably do not do this, but I do a lot, and so does our team. We spend a lot of time looking down because floor surfaces in places like this where you have millions of people go over the top of them are inordinately expensive to maintain. We have pulled up, as part of Rivertown, all of the old bitumen, which was getting painted every year. We were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year maintaining bitumen. We have put in a more expensive but much more robust surface, which we will have to maintain every 20 years. We have tried to, as we have invested this capital, think about OpEx over time and see a reduction in that over time. I think, Noel, your point is absolutely well noted. I would say this is that.
We have the same view around maintenance. At the same time, I think there's an obligation on us to make sure that we're suitably diligent and prudent about how we do spend every dollar in the organization, if it's safety or otherwise. Certainly, safety goes to the top of the pile. Whenever we're talking about efficiency of the organization, it's very clear that safety is not on the table there. It's all about other parts of the business. It's a priority that we have to pay for. We've seen what can happen in terms of the erosion of value when it's not a focus. That's been, on our minds, a very, very clear focus. There are big things that can happen in terms of pieces of plant that do necessitate potentially a fairly sizable one-off cost. José, did you want to add anything?
I think you've covered it pretty well. Obviously, if we're doing something substantial to a ride or attraction or other structural asset and it's going to enhance that asset and give it a longer life than it would have previously had, then in those situations, we wouldn't be expensing it. We'd be capitalizing that because we're effectively creating a better or improved asset. What you're seeing in the P&L is more the stuff that's just keeping stuff as it should be and safe. What I will say is that in FY 2025, we had, obviously, Rivertown open for half of the period. And we also had the kids' area that came on a year earlier. If you look back into the year prior to that, FY 2024, a lot of the park was closed. We'd taken down a lot of rides, and so they didn't need to be maintained. So there is.
An element of having more rides in FY 2025 versus the prior, which would have had an impact too. Yeah.
And everyone present. Dreamworld was the subject of an episode of an international reality TV show. It's called How.
How Did they Fix That.
How Did they Fix That. Which I think is on National Geographic.
Yeah, I think it's actually airing on Saturday. I understand it on Channel 10 at midday, I think, actually.
I would commend it to everyone to look at. It's a behind-the-scenes view of what happens at Dreamworld in terms of safety, the regular safety checks, maintenance, and so on. I found it a fascinating program. If you've got the opportunity, try and catch it or record it. It's well worth watching.
Lastly, Noel, just to give you one more insight. What we've been dealing with over the last several years is some significant investment, I would say, around core plant integrity parts of the organization. When I say that, I mean things like inground pipes. I mean things like high-voltage networks, which hadn't been invested into the quantum that we would otherwise like to see them. To the point where we wouldn't be able to do some of the material changes that we've made in the organization without having to upgrade those facilities. Those things are the most difficult investments because it's very hard to sell a ticket on the back of a brand new HV transformer at the front of the park, but they are necessitated nonetheless. Those things, over time, will come off. We've had to do that over the last several years, and that is slowing up.
It has been another factor in this. In fact, a lot of it is not rides. It actually is core fundamental infrastructure within the property.
Just a quick one. First tip that I had to Mike Hamilton, shareholder, to Greg and the team. Anecdotal, but I try and drive on the M1 at night, not during the day, as everyone's trying to come here this morning, probably noticed. It's not a good idea. The special events, Halloween, etc. car park chockers. It's fantastic to see, and I think you guys are doing a great job in that regard. The question I have is just to follow up on the DA. It's not on the specifics, so I understand that. If you read the call-in notice, very measured, so I understand where you're coming from there. This pertains more to the board and the nature of what you see a company bringing in the future because there will be some that will be very tempted to become builders.
If you read—and the reason I'm asking this question now, and just to get some clarity, that I think you should be able to provide, is the call-in notice was one thing, but the ministerial press release was another. It could have been your PR release that you got everything you ever wanted because it mentioned the Premier, the Deputy Premier, obviously, two ministers, the Minister for Tourism, the Mayor, and the Deputy Mayor, and extolled the virtues, and particularly mentioned the residential, etc. What I want to know as a shareholder is the board see us becoming something like a Bend Holdings where you run a theme park, but you're also doing development, you're becoming a developer? I understand the hotel would be probably a different thing, but in particular, precinct four, etc. You don't quite know what you're going to get, but that ministerial press release.
Says that it's a valid question to ask. How do you see the company's future in terms of that structure?
Thank you. I'll really repeat what we've said at previous meetings in response to similar questions. The short answer is we don't see ourselves as being developers. What we do have, hopefully, is very valuable pockets of land that potentially we can contribute to our development and participate that way. The attitude of the board is that we're not going to become developers and take on development risk. We hopefully will have something that a lot of people will want, which is the land, which is the biggest cost as a precursor to any development. I think if we can, hopefully those promising words contained in the media release that accompanied the call, if they come to fruition, there are some very exciting concepts and so on that we think can be rolled out.
Where others are putting capital at risk, but which will all be additive to the value of what we've got and also create further income streams for the group. I think we had one more question here. Chris, yeah.
Victor Belkov, shareholder. Just going back to the question beforehand about CapEx. Going on in the business, and it sounds like a lot of it's been overdue. Is there a forecast for the next three years on? We've spent sort of $ 98 million, $ 96 million in the last two years. I assume that's going to taper off now. Is there some sort of guidance or forecast for the next two, three years? Nothing too specific, but just even some quantums. I understand that there's some of these things that come up and things like maybe the WhiteWater World, the water slide thing, that might come up as a capacity thing, but that doesn't sound like it's huge. Any sort of color on that would be great.
I'll get Greg to ask Greg to deal with the body of the question. Let me just say that as a matter of policy, we don't make forward-looking statements. You will not find any guidance given by this board, either as to future financial performance or any other material matters. Greg, anything in a general sense about CapEx?
I can assure you that we do have a forecast. Hopefully that helps. Look, I think the best I can do is say to you this is that we absolutely recognize the significant capital investments that have been made. We think that they were the right strategic investments, and I think that's starting to prove out in our performance. We are also very mindful about, over time, demonstrating that clearly before we look to come back to holders and say that we're going to spend more. We have made it very clear that the quantum of investment and the pace of investment that you've seen over the last several years is not what we forecast over the coming years. You are right. There are times where things will come up where we think an investment is strategically necessary.
That obviously comes with board approval, and it's not something that management have complete control over by any stretch. But again I can assure you that there's no intention over the next three years. I'm not suggesting that in four years there is, that we're looking to spend anything like the level of capital investment we've put to date. We do do our best to give some kind of, I think, directional idea as to what it is on an annual basis. We certainly wouldn't give anything to that level of outlook. José, have you got anything further?
Yeah, no, I think. That's absolutely right. King Claw will hopefully open in a month. That's the last significant piece of development, CapEx, at the moment. That's in the pipe. Our maintenance CapEx, historically, is sort of it fluctuates, but it's generally in the range of $ 5 million-$ 10 million a year. We're probably going to be somewhere in the middle of that range this year. Yeah, we don't see a need for it to be up in the quantums that you've seen in recent years. Yeah.
Okay. Yep. Thanks, Spencer.
Sorry, one more. Spencer Wright, shareholder. Would there be any availability for the board to consider separating out the attendance of its three businesses and the per-cap spend of its three businesses? Macquarie used to do that. Used to even say, "Here's how many we got from Queensland. Interstate, international. Here's what the per-cap and attendance was of Dreamworld and WhiteWater World." While I said that WhiteWater World was disgustingly busy, which it was when I attended, my metrics also show that it's down from its peak because obviously it's open less than half the time. Is there a way that we could put those in future owner reports so we can also keep you honest to make sure we're not sacrificing too much per-cap spend? Obviously, some great deals that have gone on. Black Friday, $ 89 for your entire annual pass.
I'm sure that'll be very popular. I'd advocate that you only do that for Dreamworld and you upsell to WhiteWater World, SkyPoint, and your premium offerings like Happy Halloween. Which I was lucky enough to be a VIP pumpkin pass holder too, and it was an absolutely fantastic night, and you should absolutely run those more. Would you consider changing the annual report so we can get a bit more information? Because I'm assuming our friends down South will know everything and more than our owners.
Down South as in you mean?
Our friends at Village.
Yeah. I think that's the reason why we would be hesitant to do so is that we've got a situation where there's obviously a degree of disclosure which is incumbent upon us as a public company, and there's a degree of disclosure incumbent upon them as a private company. We have no intention to be opaque with holders. You are our owners, and so we completely appreciate that. At the same time, I'm well aware that Village, and when I was working for Village, I was very studious of what was happening here, and I can imagine that they are doing the same to us right now. In fact, we get a transcript of or a report of who was watching these proceedings, and I can guarantee you there's many people at Village doing just that.
There is a reason why we are hesitant to give away too much, and that is because there are clear competitive elements to that which are on our minds. That is the first answer. I think on the second part around price, again, look, I would say this is that it is a very interesting situation at the moment. We are testing price every day, and we are looking and trying to be very sophisticated around how we look at yield and how we look at active revenue management. You will see things that we will test that will be on the downside. You probably do not see the things that we test on the upside. There are things that we are testing right now around increasing yield that are less evident, but we are doing those things constantly. It is a conversation we have literally every week. They are very large asset-heavy fixed-cost businesses.
In our minds, the marginal cost of an additional guest is quite negligible. The incremental guest that comes on is quite disproportional in terms of the increase in profit that we get from it. It is something that's on our minds. I think your point again about WhiteWater World is absolutely well made. To your point about, how do you think about, say, Black Friday and what is included and what's in annual passes and things like that, that's absolutely on our minds. With WhiteWater World, I can tell you this is that when I first joined the organization, I would walk into WhiteWater World when we were opening in winter, and there would be 23 lifeguards and 14 people as guests in the park, and that's just not good business. We've taken, again, a strong view around strategic differentiation.
What are we trying to do to make sure that we're uniquely different to our competitor? That does not always mean that we're adding additional product or elements. It sometimes means that we're making decisions to take things away for the right reasons. Our view is that at WhiteWater World, running it out of season does not make a lot of sense. Does it mean that we would look to expand our operations in the shoulder periods? I think we're seeing more and more reasons to do that. We expect to do just that over the next little while.
I could also just add to that. There's hopefully some logic in some of the promotional activities that we do. Almost unfailingly, when I bring people around the park who haven't been here for five, six, maybe ten years, they're astounded at what's been achieved here. Again, almost invariably, the response is, you've got to get the message out. You've got to tell people what's here. We've had that challenge of, particularly in the local market, again, going back to my earlier remarks, the consequence of the tragedy and the loss of support from our local market. We've had to rebuild, as we're doing very successfully, the trust, indeed the love of the local market with Dreamworld.
We have been using some element of price to get more and more people to come to the park because we are convinced that once they are in the park and see the investment that has gone here, looked at the standards of the food offerings, the service levels, and so on, that they will become ongoing annual pass holders and continue to support the park. You can see how we are doing in terms of the growth of our installed annual pass holder base and so on. We have deliberately used some measure of promotions to get the message out to the wider community as to what has been achieved here over the last few years.
We think about it very clearly in terms of lifetime value. I can tell you that having been in the industry for a long, long time, this is a very immature industry in terms of thinking about lifetime value. The board has challenged management to get a lot better at that. It makes a lot of sense. There is a gateway reason to get people into the brand, and then there is a difference around once they are in, how do you retain them. We are constantly looking at all of that. That does not mean that we are going to be constantly doing the type of things that we are doing today. Our view has been very much, let's recover the business, get it just operating well. Obviously, there is a discussion around trust and all of those kind of things, and we are researching that regularly.
I think that we're in a position where it's never where we want it to be, but it's materially better than what it was. At the moment, we're in a phase where we're building attendance, and over time, you can expect that we will think about how do we improve margins. That is absolutely what's on our minds. I think it is very clearly a sequential strategy. If you think about the alternative view, I think there's a very topical one. In Six Flags, a regional theme park operator in the U.S., they had the right strategy at the wrong time. A new CEO came in, had the view that we've spent a lot of capital over a long time here, and we're just not getting the value we should get, and let's put price up.
I'll give you a commitment over time that will make the product offer materially better. Just trust me. What he did was he hiked prices materially. Attendance, revenue, EBITDA, absolutely capitulated. You can see today, if you go and have a look at the Six Flags share price, there are some other factors in terms of integration challenges with the recent M&A event. At the end of the day, our view is it's about having the right strategy at the right time. Our view at the moment is that increasing price over time is absolutely the right strategy. We're doing things today that will allow us to improve margins over time structurally to do that. I would point to the fact that we're continuing to move headline price up. I expect that we'll move headline price up again between now and Christmas.
As we look at how are we going to improve margins, one way to do that will be to do less or more sophisticated promotional activity. We'll have the optionality to do that without doing what we saw at Six Flags, which was taking pricing from $99, say, to $199 in one day. That, in my mind, is value destructive and not the way we want to go about it. There are some things I think which are really to be mindful of. I think the other thing that I would say too is that we're very mindful not only about the revenue mix from a ticketing standpoint, but what happens in park. We want the parks to be comfortably busy. That's important for a few things. One is in-park revenue. There are other intangible things, the vibe, if you will.
The parks need to be reasonably busy. You'll see today that the park will be reasonably busy, but not what it is on the weekend. I think, Spencer, you seem to be a regular guest, which we appreciate your custom. I think you would see that the difference on a weekday to a weekend is materially different. That also is what you would see in our in-park performance. Let me just give you this other comment, which is that I want to give you some confidence that we do think about this at a strategic level. If I took you to SkyPoint and told you about our pricing strategy at SkyPoint, it's materially different to what we're doing here today because it is capacity-based. It's challenging around capacity.
The things we're thinking about at SkyPoint are contrarily different to what we're doing here at Dreamworld. It is constantly in our minds. It is a discussion that we have internally on a regular basis. When I say regular, I mean 3x a week. It is something that is absolutely part of our discussions with the Board as well.
Yeah, and I don't for one second want you to. Jack your prices up. In fact, you say Six Flags, but in 2013, Dreamworld put up its per-cap spend by 17.9%, and its attendance went down 21.8%. Obviously, it can be very destructive. I just made the point. I was more coming from the perspective of if it was $89, fine, keep a low price point, but can we upsell opposed to just offering everything in one?
No, you're right.
I just want to make the point. I'm not saying jack your price up.
No, I agree. Yeah. I think for us, it's about stratification. So what is involved at the entry-level price point? When we first endeavored to drive our local pass space, and there's reasons why we think the local pass space is critical. We've talked a lot about the idea of and the notion of. Annual passes being a weather hedge. I can't tell you if it's going to rain in December and January or not, but I can tell you that the work that we've done so far to date is going to fortify us if it does. We feel very strongly about that. I'd also say that we believe winning in the local market is critical to winning in other markets.
Again, I'm hesitant to go into a lot of details to why. I'm happy to talk to you outside here today and tell you why I believe that is the case because I'm not proposing to give away our strategy to others too much. We believe very strongly in what we're doing around annual pass. I think your points are very well made, and there's absolutely optionality around thinking about what else we can do, particularly around promotions to try to become more sophisticated. We do do some of those things today. You'll see all sorts of different things we're testing in market, things like added value in F&B, things like added value in the retail business. We think very seriously about each of the promotions we do. We ring-fence them. We go to them for a very clear reason.
Hopefully, that gives you some confidence. Hopefully, I'm not sounding too defensive. I just wanted you to understand too that it is on our minds as well. We do have a very clear mind about how we're thinking about all of that.
I just had a question about. It seems to me clearly that there's this real potential tailwind. You quote about the international visitation numbers being well down. And 2032 is. Clearly. Hopefully going to be a peak in visitation. What you're dealing with the government on this sort of thing, do they have a plan? Or what sort of plans do we have as well in terms of. But it seems to be it needs to be come from a state level or national level as well in terms of getting those numbers back up to because that's a real tailwind for us. If we get people coming to Southeast Queensland, they're going to come here. One of the things they're going to come to, they're going to come to Gold Coast, they're going to come to Brisbane, and why not spend a day here? So.
Would you be able to talk about that? Because that seems like a real nugget that just needs to be, it's coming, and it's a question of how do we get it to really come out of the ground for us.
Let me start with this. I've been misquoted on this before, so I want to make it very clear. As international comes on board, it will be dilutionary to per cap because they just do not pay full price because they're not here for the full day. That does not mean we have a negative view about international attendance. In fact, quite the opposite, it is incremental revenue. I think about it simply, it's a bigger bag of money than the other, and we want to take it. Let me be just abundantly clear first that we agree with you on the international opportunity. I take a lot of counsel out of Randy Garfield on the board. Randy has been in sales and marketing for and has forgotten more things than I know about it.
I can tell you this, that Randy has been very clear in his counsel that the international recovery will come in concentric circles. It comes further afield later in the piece. You see a lot of recovery close to home in places like China, for example, and over time that will expand. At the same time, we need to be pragmatic about our ability to move destination. Chris Osborne, our Director of Sales, is sitting two seats away from you. If Chris said to me, "Greg, I'm going to launch a $ 3 million campaign to go into China and bring business into Dreamworld," I'd be quite concerned. These are big markets, expensive markets, and our reach in those markets is difficult to achieve. We need to work with destination marketing organizations. We need to work with inbound tour operators.
To do the job there. In saying that, there is a significant shift in international attendance, particularly out of China. The reason we're focused on China is it was a significant part, if not the most significant part of our mix in the past. You would know that the Gold Coast was very much a tour destination. Over the last few years, I think helped by COVID, we've seen that travelers can now use QR codes and are technically savvy. We're seeing a real shift away from group travelers to independent, free independent travelers that can do all of their own things. That comes with a different way to think about inbound as it happens. I can say to you that Gary, myself, and Chris were only recently in Shanghai, and we met with the largest inbound tour operator in the world.
That goes to the point that if I've got the Chairman and the CEO and our Director of Sales going to meet on that basis, we see a significant opportunity in that area to come. There is a job to do in the destination marketing area as well. The government has got plans. There are many very exciting catchphrases about green and gold runways to 2032 and all this kind of stuff. I can tell you that what we are pleased about is that at TEQ, the people that we talk to at TEQ are very commercial. I'm very pleased with the relationships that we've got with TEQ, EDC, and others. We feel very, very confident that as the international recovery comes on, we'll capture our fair share of it. It's not good today, and we absolutely know that.
I think to give you some comfort, the worst thing, the thing that if I was in your shoes, the last thing you'd want to hear about us doing is spending millions on advertising in far-flung markets. That's not the way to do it. It's about working with others and doing it in a way which we capture our share when they're here.
Okay. Any other questions in the room? Chris, anything online?
One more.
No.
No? Sorry.
Last one. Hi, Peter Johnson, l ong-time. Initial investor in Dreamworld and very happy and satisfied with that. I'd like to congratulate the board on inviting shareholders back to the meeting at Dreamworld. It's a great opportunity to come and see how it's run and the operations. We experienced the horrendous traffic today. It's something that the board has no control over, obviously. How do you see the impact on the M1 with business in the future f or Dreamworld's operations?
Greg.
Let me start. This is very clearly in my mind as well. I have lived and worked here for 40 years in the Northern Gold Coast area, so I am well aware of it. I would put it in this context when we talk about the DA because there have been some proponents that suggest the DA should be stopped because of traffic. I would say to you, the traffic today is bad, and it is not going to get better if we do not do our development. The thing to do here is fix the traffic, not preclude development from happening. I would say this to you, that you turned up today at a bit before 9:00 A.M., I would hope, or you intended to, and probably did not quite work out the way you intended. Dreamworld is not open today until past 10:00.
So the notion that Dreamworld is a driver of the traffic issues is a furphy, and I think it's intellectually flawed. I'm not saying that that's what you're suggesting by any stretch, but that's what other proponents have said, and I want to use this opportunity to make that very clear. If you look at the developments that have happened here over the last few years—Westfield, the Creamery, TAFE, the Foxwell High School, Costco, all the fast food, all of this stuff has been going on. There's been very little in terms of additional infrastructure investment. You would have driven past, probably very slowly this morning, Queensland's largest new ambulance center on WhiteWater World. I can tell you I would be very concerned if I needed an ambulance at 8:30 in the Morning on a Tuesday because of what's going on.
This morning too, trying to get through.
It is a real issue. As management, we come here every day, and in school holidays, it is the best time ever to come to Dreamworld because there is no traffic. What am I saying all this for? I would say to you that there are other factors, schools. The general density of the population and changes that have been made here, which are driving these issues. I think it is really important to make sure that people do not think about our DA as an impediment around traffic. The traffic is already a problem. What are we doing to fix it? I can tell you that we are absolutely working with the state government on it. The state government is particularly receptive to feedback. Gary and I particularly spend a lot of time with ministers giving direct feedback as to the things that are challenging us.
I think we've had a very fair hearing to date. They know that as this area continues to grow, there has to be something done. They would point you to the Creamery Connector as an aid for that. I would say to you that that's probably going to be a very good thing, but it won't be when stage one opens. I think stage one's going to make it worse. But I think in time, when stage two and three open, that will be materially helpful. There is more to be done on that. We are absolutely prosecuting the case. The last thing I want is to have people have an incredible day here at Dreamworld and then get stuck in the car park for two hours.
I get that feedback, and I read those reviews, and people say, "Fix your car park at Dreamworld." There is nothing wrong with the car park at Dreamworld. The problem is you cannot get out. You sit in the line and you just cannot get anywhere. We can make the car park a lot better if you like, but it is not going to get you out. We are doing a lot of work on that. I can tell you that as part of the DA, we will absolutely contribute to any incremental traffic that we bring. We are going to contribute to the incremental traffic that we bring. We are not paying for everyone else's additional traffic that they have brought on. I think that is unreasonable, and we have made that abundantly clear to people along the way. It is absolutely a concern. It is not good, and we are absolutely.
Doing everything we can to advocate for changes up here. Amongst others, I would say that we've got very active local councils and local members, and they are all saying the same things. Sometimes, I think things are labeled as a crisis, but we don't really act like it's a crisis. It's not quite a crisis, I wouldn't say, but I don't think that the reaction that we're having today is commensurate with the problem, and we're trying to make that change.
Okay. Any online questions, Chris?
No, Gary, there's no questions relating to the reports.
Resolution 1 and the Notice of Meeting is to adopt the remuneration report for the year ended 24 June 2025. The report is included within the annual report and has been made available to shareholders. Investors should note that the vote in relation to the adoption of the report is not binding on the company or the directors. The company will disregard any votes cast for Resolution 1 that do not comply with the voting exclusion requirements of the Corporations Act as set out in the Notice of M eeting. I move that the company's remuneration report for the financial year ended 24 June 2025 be received, considered, and adopted. The proxy results received for this resolution are on the screen. Are there any questions in the room relating to this item of business? None. Chris, any questions online?
No questions online relating to the remuneration report.
Thank you. I'll now move to the next items of business. The next two resolutions concern the re-election of David Haslingden and Erin Wallace as directors of the company. Resolution 2 is to elect David Haslingden as the Director of the company. Details in relation to David's background, experience, and qualifications have been provided in the Notice of Meeting. I move with great pleasure that David Haslingden, who retires by rotation in accordance with clause 6.1F of the company's constitution and being eligible for re-election, be re-elected as a director. The proxy results for this resolution are on the screen. Are there any questions relating to this resolution? None. Chris, any questions online?
No online questions, Gary, for that resolution.
Good. Thank you. Now I'll move to the next item of business, which is to. A resolution to re-elect Erin Wallace as a Director of the company. Details in relation to Erin's background, experience, and qualifications have been provided in the Notice of Meeting. With great pleasure, I move that Erin Wallace, who retires by rotation in accordance with clause 6.1F of the company's constitution and being eligible for re-election, be re-elected as a director. The proxy results for this resolution are on the screen. Are there any questions relating to this resolution? No? Any questions online?
No questions online, Gary.
All right. So we now come almost to the end of the meeting, but before closing the meeting, I'll take any further questions of a general nature which have not been covered to date. Shareholders, this is your opportunity to ask any questions, and the floor is open if you've got any questions that haven't been covered to date. Okay, Spencer? Yep.
In the proposed development, some of that will be residential. I calculated approximately 300 meters away, which might be about the same as where the other residential development is to the sort of Southeast. Any possibility of noise complaints or any sort of impact that any residential development could have on Dreamworld, I'm cautious of the tales that sometimes happen out of the U.K.
Or Luna Park.
Or Luna Park. Yeah, you got a roller coaster out of it.
I've operated theme parks that have had those kind of challenges, Spencer, so it's on our minds. Most of the team here have as well. I look at Michelle, who ran operations for us at other places and had to deal with that on a regular basis in terms of going out and having cups of tea with residents, and so we're well aware of it. I can say to you that the areas that we're contemplating where resi is the highest and best use, we've absolutely looked at the offsets, if you will, or the gaps between our operations and that resi. And the type of things that we've got there are, I think, not conducive to those kind of complaints. We have had complaints elsewhere in the past around cowbells ringing and upsetting residents, so we're very mindful of it.
I think the proximity and the nature of what we've got close to where we're thinking about resi being the highest and best use is probably not concerning. It has absolutely been part of our thinking.
Noel?
Gary, last year, you were good enough to invite some shareholders to do a tour of Dreamworld. I found this very beneficial, and I'm just wondering, are you likely to be able to offer us that again in the future?
Yes. There is a tour available.
You can do one today, Noel?
And I think it's a great opportunity to showcase the investment that we've made and, frankly, the fantastic state of the park and also a good opportunity to get a sneak preview of King Claw. And when we meet 12 months from now, I want to see how many people in this room have ridden King Claw. I hasten to add, I will not be one of them, okay? It is truly stunning. We think it'll be a massive draw card for attendance. I think Michelle, where's Michelle? Yeah. I think Michelle, and Michelle knows rides, told me that it was the most intense ride that you've ever been on. Is that fairly representing your statement?
No, I think the other significant opportunity I believe that comes from this tour is to meet more members of the executive team than me and José. One of the significant things that we have here, I think, is an incredible team, excluding myself, to be frank. The team members that you'll meet today, I think, will give you insight as to the quality of the people that we have here, and I think probably an insight into the culture in the organization as well.
Can I just ask one question about Big Brother and collaboration that you've got there? Because it used to be here years ago. Is there some sort of historical—like what sort of benefit it had historically, and is that something you're hopefully anticipating for this time or just provide some guidance? Because to me, it's a pretty good cross-promotion. It's a lot of advertising down south, and I imagine you've got a lot of other things planned in relation to it. Is there some sort of historical record of what sort of effect it's had in the past?
Yeah. So we absolutely.
You can share? Yeah, thanks.
We absolutely contemplated what it had done in the past. In fact, one of our directors, Jemma, is very, very close to that, which has been very helpful in terms of giving today's management some advice as to how to structure this deal. We have had an eye to it. I think it's been contemplated, but I think today is very different in terms of those days when reality TV back then was new and exciting, and today is a more mature product. In saying that, I love the idea that Dreamworld's going to be on TV six nights a week. I think that's tremendous. We have a very good deal with Endemol. They're a great partner, and we're excited to see what we can do with it.
We think it's a very—I'm not going to go into the details of the deal, but I think it's a deal that, as holders, you'd be happy with. I think that we've managed to do a very complimentary deal for both us and Endemol. Everyone's going to win out of this. As to how the show goes, look, we don't know. I've seen the house. I've seen what they're going to do. They've brought back the old team that were here back in those febrile kind of early days. They are very passionate, hardworking people, and I think that they're going to get the very best out of them on this job. We don't know how it will go, but I can tell you just one very interesting insight would be that within the first few days, they had 14,000 people try to get into the house a s applicants.
I'm sure many of you were on that list, but we think that's a very good indication. And so we are terribly excited about how it will go. We don't really know, but we had a good look at it. I can tell you that we've retained a lot of optionality about how we thought about this deal. We've got options to do all sorts of things should the show take off. At the same time, not to be contrarian, if it doesn't, we've got options to not do those things. So we're not committing OpEx on tours of houses and this kind of stuff if we don't believe that there's value in doing that. Our hope and our support towards Endemol and Big Brother is very strong, and my fervent hope is it does terribly well. That's good for all of us.
I should also add that what we've done here has not gone unnoticed with other significant holders of IP globally. And we are having discussions with a wide range of parties about the potential for activations and so on here. It's very exciting. And as I said, the recovery of Dreamworld, the quality of what we've done here, is certainly making an impression internationally.
I am Kim Fulton, shareholder. Great meeting. Very informative and honest. It's really good. I think I heard someone mention conferences. And I just had a question as to whether that was sort of in your forward-looking, especially when you've got this venue, and whether that was something you were looking forward to in the future.
Conferences is a critical part of the business. So conferencing and events is on our radar. The good news is for FY 2025, conferencing and events was up on FY 2016, which was our best year ever. We have exceeded the best year ever already. And that is on a very significantly lower attendance year than what we had back in FY 2016. We are really excited about it. I can tell you every single day at the moment, this is the hot time for conferencing and events. Right now, we have got an event every single night. Tonight, we have got Channel 10 doing upfronts here. We have got RACQ coming. We have had Harvey Norman. We have had many great ASX-listed blue-chip companies doing their events here, as well as others. It's the challenge I have at the moment with this team is trying to keep people.
Motivated and excited and confident because it's hard work. We are going day and night at the moment because of this extra business, and it's a great problem to have. I'd much prefer to be dealing with that than to deal with the fact that we haven't got the business. So it's well, it is very much on our minds, and we're happy with where it's going. Always more to be done, as Chris would say to you, but we're seeing really strong results so far.
And again. I'll add to that, if we fast forward, I mean, everything, as we've indicated before, in terms of our land, is predicated on a successful outcome of the call and application. The potential, if we can get to a hotel with some conferencing facilities, the ability to leverage off that for additional attendances here and utilization of the park, particularly during midweek when we're not so busy, could be quite exciting. But even with the already great facilities we've got, as Greg has indicated to you, the market is appearing very strongly for us. Yeah, Spencer. We can add to revenues by charging him for his place.
I got in for $0.45 . No, I'm only joking. Just building on the conferencing thing, I noticed a user experience issue on your website for birthday parties. Your birthday party subpage—well, a, it's not a page. It says we do birthday parties. It is under celebrations and weddings, which I really wouldn't associate with birthday parties. I wouldn't say Village do that particularly well either, but they do have a subpage that has a bit of information. It seems like you really just have to book a table at Rivertown—sorry, Jane's—restaurant for a birthday party. I know it's a really minor thing, but obviously, we're family-friendly. I know that you want to improve the bathrooms and just disproportionately. Create the next generation of those people who are going to come back with nostalgia.
So we are not far away, Spencer, from digitizing the entire birthday e xperience in terms of how it works. To make it very easy for guests. And if I go back to the notion around annual passes and why it's so important, you can imagine this is that if our annual pass holder base is large, burgeoning, and thriving, then it's a lot cheaper to come and bring your kids and their mates to Dreamworld for a birthday party if they've already got an annual pass. Then we get incremental revenue as a result of that. It is on our minds. I would say to you, to be frank with you, it's not the top thing on our minds, but it certainly is on the agenda for the sales team. The first thing we want to do is make it as frequent as we possibly can.
The last thing we want to do is add 15 people to the team to be able to take birthday bookings because we've got a pretty ordinary way to do it. To be honest with you, that's where it is at the moment. We're not happy with the process, and it's got opportunity to change. The good news is we're very, very close to releasing that, which will completely digitize that process, make it a lot more frictionless.
Again, too. We see, obviously, family as being our core market. I particularly also want to just acknowledge Chris Osborne's role. Chris, Head of Sales. Delivered some fantastic initiatives like sponsoring School Week. That's what School—
Quick Week.
Quick Week, sorry. Which goes out around Australia. Chris landed that last year. Just as an example of getting the Dreamworld name back out to our core market and restoring the great love and affection that a generation or two of Australians had for Dreamworld. That's been, as I explained earlier, a big task to rewin the trust and love of our core market. Any questions online, Chris?
Gary, no, there's no questions as such, but I will note for the record, there's some statements and comments made through the platform that, after proper consideration, are not questions that relate to the management of the company. So we won't read them out or respond to them. There was one helpful shareholder who pointed out that the How Did They Fix That program is available on 10 Play. So I thought I'd just close with that.
And we're happy for you to do that, but also, it's available on free- to- air as well if you like.
Well worth watching.
It is a good show.
So there are no further questions, and I now conclude the formal business of the meeting. Shareholders are reminded that they can submit their votes online until five minutes after the meeting closes. The results of the polls will be announced to the ASX later today. And to confirm what Greg said earlier, for shareholders present today, there will be some light refreshments immediately following the meeting, and then an opportunity to join members of our executive team on a tour of the park.
So I want to thank you all for coming. It's great to have the level of questions and the passionate support that I can see in the room from our shareholders. I'm delighted to be able to produce or to announce better results. Greg's the one who produces them, but to announce better results. I certainly do believe, as all of us at board level do, that the best days of Dreamworld lie ahead of us. Thank you all.