Good morning, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Coast Entertainment Holdings Limited 2026 Annual General Meeting. I would now like to hand over to your Chairman, Dr. Gary Weiss AM, to begin proceedings.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Annual General Meeting of Coast Entertainment Holdings Limited, which this year is being held at SkyPoint. My name is Gary Weiss, and I am the Chairman of Coast. For those attending in person, welcome to SkyPoint, one of the Gold Coast's most iconic attractions. As in previous years, this AGM is being 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 us virtually.
Thanks, Gary. As mentioned by Gary, today's meeting is being conducted in a hybrid format, allowing some people to attend virtually via the online AGM platform, which is open. For those attending virtually, I just have a few notes. If you are experiencing any technical issues, we have published a virtual meeting guide on our website, so please refer to same. Shareholders who are online will also have an opportunity to ask questions via the virtual meeting platform. If you are a shareholder or a proxy, attorney, or representative of a shareholder and wish to ask a question online about a particular item of business, please click the icon, Ask a Question, on your screen, select that item of business to which your question relates, and then submit.
If you have any questions already prepared, please submit them now on the platform so that we can consider them as and when we come to the particular resolution or agenda item. You do not need to wait until 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, or if we consider that a response would be in the benefit of all shareholders. A recording of today's meeting will be available on our website later this afternoon. I will now hand back to Gary to formally open the meeting.
I now confirm that a quorum is present, and I declare the meeting open. It is my pleasure to introduce to you the members of the Coast Entertainment Board in attendance today. I am joined in person at SkyPoint by David Haslingden, our Lead Independent Director, and joining us on the phone from the U.S. are our colleagues Randy Garfield and Erin Wallace. I would also like to welcome members of the executive team, Greg Yong, our Group Chief Executive Officer, on my right, and on my left, José de Sacadura, Group Chief Financial Officer, and also welcome the group's auditor, BDO Audit Pty Limited, represented by Tim Mann, and Tim is sitting in the front row and available to answer questions in relation to the FY 2026 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. I will then hand over to Greg to provide a more detailed update on the business, including a recap of our FY 2026 theme parks and attractions financial results and recent trading performance. Greg will also provide some detail regarding our corporate strategy and capital management framework, and importantly, our plans for unlocking the potential of the group's landholdings, including the proposed development funding approach and timeline. We will then move to the formal business of the meeting and put to shareholders the resolution set out on 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. The group is pleased to report a strong performance in FY 2026 with solid growth across every key operating and financial metric. As highlighted in our August results presentation, FY 2026 was a 53-week year compared with 52 weeks reported in FY 2025.
To provide a more meaningful comparison, I will focus on like-for-like performance, which adjusts for the additional week in the prior year. In FY 2026, our theme parks and attractions businesses delivered a strong growth across all key measures. Ticket sales increased 24% on a like-for-like basis, while total visitation reached 2 million guests, up 26.5%.
Operating revenue also increased 19% to AUD 116.5 million, with the business delivering record food and beverage and retail revenues. Importantly, earnings growth significantly outpaced revenue growth, with theme parks and attractions EBITDA, excluding specific items, more than doubling to AUD 18.8 million. This demonstrates a strong operating leverage within our business. Strong annual pass sales also contributed to a 58.7% increase in deferred revenue to AUD 20.2 million, providing a solid revenue base heading into FY 2027. At the group level, EBITDA, excluding specific items, increased 236.5% to AUD 13.8 million, and the group returned to net profitability. Delivering a consolidated net profit after tax of AUD 6.1 million. The group also generated positive cash flows, ending FY 2026 in a strong financial position with AUD 35 million in cash, no debt, and a fully undrawn AUD 20 million banking facility.
Beyond our operating performance, FY 2026 was also a breakthrough year for unlocking the value of our underlying assets. In July 2026, we received planning approval for our 55-hectare Coomera landholding, creating significant opportunities to realize long-term shareholder value. Greg will discuss these opportunities in more detail shortly. Following the approval, we commissioned independent valuations of Dreamworld and SkyPoint, with fair values determined at AUD 295.9 million and AUD 51.7 million, respectively, both significantly above their current book values. Together with AUD 136.1 million of tax losses, representing a tax benefit of AUD 40.8 million, most of which is not recognized on our balance sheet, these highlight the substantial underlying asset value within the group. It is now my pleasure to invite Greg to provide a further update on the performance of the business, and following this update, we will move to the formal business of the meeting.
Thank you, Gary, and good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here and to have the opportunity to update you today on the progress we are making at Coast Entertainment. We covered the FY 2026 financial results in detail in August, so I will recap that in a relatively brief form before providing an update on our September 2026 year-to-date trading performance. Today, though, I want to focus on what I believe is the most significant opportunity ahead of us, which is unlocking the latent value of our Coomera landholding. Our central objective is straightforward, to build a stronger operating business and to convert the value of our assets into sustainable long-term value for you, our shareholders. FY 2026 was a strong year for Coast, and as illustrated on slide six, we have delivered continued improvement across profitability, guest experience, and operational performance.
We did this while maintaining our focus on safety, delivering new attractions and products, and improving our operational efficiency. As we covered these achievements in detail in August, I will not revisit them individually today, but credit goes to our team for all this great work, and it gives us the platform today to talk about growth. Turning briefly to slide seven and the numbers on slide seven. We welcomed just over 2 million visitors in FY 2026, an increase of 26.5% on a like-for-like basis. That is the highest attendance since FY 2016, with Dreamworld also achieving a record daily attendance during the peak summer holidays. As Gary mentioned earlier, our ticket sales and operating revenue grew strongly in FY 2026.
Notably, that revenue growth translated into stronger earnings, with EBITDA excluding specific items more than doubling to AUD 18.8 million, up almost 120% on the prior year, the highest since FY 2026, while the EBITDA margin improved by 7.3 percentage points to 16.1%. In simple terms, more revenue is flowing through a largely fixed cost base, and so more of every dollar reaches the bottom line. Revenue per visitor was lower, partly reflecting the mix of visits and the strength of annual passes. However, this larger passholder base is strategically important, supporting repeat visitation and future in-park spending opportunities. Turning to the current year's trading on slide eight. For the quarter through to September 2026, we continued to deliver growth despite navigating a more challenging consumer environment and cycling a strong comparative period. Total visitation increased by 18.4%, while revenue increased by 12.5% compared to the prior corresponding period.
SkyPoint, which we are here today, continued its strong performance, delivering another record revenue result for the first quarter. The larger passholder base continues to support visitation, with deferred revenue at the end of September growing 23.6% from the prior period. Ticket sales were 16.2% below the prior period, and the main driver of that is timing. Last year's first quarter included the final high-volume week of our 2025 end-of-financial-year sale. This year, because FY 2026 was a 53-week year, that same week fell in June and was counted in FY 2026. In other words, this quarter is being compared against a period that included one of our biggest sales. We foreshadowed this back in our August results. Notwithstanding this timing effect, visitation, revenue, and EBITDA all continue to grow. As we have always said, one quarter is not a year, but it does reflect the resilience of the business.
Slide nine is an important reminder of both how far we have come and how much opportunity remains. We have grown attendance every year since FY 2021, with particularly strong attendance and growth in FY 2026. However, even after this recovery, our attendance of 2 million remains approximately 17% below the 2.4 million visits recorded back in FY 2016. Over the same period, the local catchment has grown by 20%, and interstate overnight visitation has also increased by 23%. In other words, we are operating in a larger addressable market today. Notably, despite attendance remaining below historical levels, both ticket sales and operating revenue have already exceeded FY 2016 levels. This demonstrates the progress we have made in rebuilding the business.
But whilst we are proud of the recovery, we do not see it as complete, and we are very clear about the residual pockets of demand that we can access to continue to build back to historical results and beyond. We have existing infrastructure and operating capacity to support even more visitation growth, and that is an important advantage as we consider the next stage. Slide 10 outlines our overarching strategy for creating long-term stakeholder value. At its foundation, as always, is safety, our people, and disciplined capital allocation. We are focused on delivering better guest experiences, reaching more customers, increasing in-park spending, and using technology to improve operations and remove friction. These initiatives underpin the ongoing performance and growth of our core business. The final element today is particularly relevant to today's discussion, transforming Dreamworld and unlocking the latent value of our landholdings.
This represents an opportunity to broaden our earnings beyond the traditional theme park model while synergistically reinforcing the strength of our core business. On slide 11, you will see some of the examples of the initiatives we are progressing within our existing business. These are things that you would expect us to be working on every day. These include the development of our new attraction, Lost Mine Mayhem, expanding our marketing reach through a multi-channel and multi-market approach, increasing in-park conversion, and leveraging technology to simplify the guest experience and improve throughput.
We discussed these initiatives in greater detail during our FY 2026 presentation, so I am not going to go through that in any more detail today. I do want to emphasize that our focus on unlocking the broader land opportunity does not come at the expense of continuing to invest in and to strengthen our core theme park business.
Turning to slide 12, I think it is abundantly clear, and we know that there is a significant gap between the company's current market valuation and the independently assessed value of our underlying assets. As illustrated, after adjusting for our AUD 35 million of cash balance, the market's implied valuation of Dreamworld and SkyPoint at approximately AUD 165 million. This compares with the independent fair valuation of approximately AUD 348 million, representing a discount of around 55% as at 30th October 2026. We recognize that several factors may be contributing to this discount, including our relatively small market cap and limited share liquidity, the ongoing recovery of our operating business, and the challenging conditions in the consumer discretionary sector. Until recently, there has also been uncertainty around how we intend to realize the value from our Coomera landholdings.
Our focus now is on closing this valuation gap through continued earnings growth and a disciplined approach to unlocking the value of our landholdings. Recognizing the scale of these opportunities, we have engaged Barrenjoey as our financial and strategic advisor. As you will see on slide 13, Barrenjoey has undertaken an external assessment of the strategic opportunities available to Coast following the planning approval. The review has considered a wide range of alternatives, including land monetization, development partnerships, and different ownership and funding structures. The objective has been to identify the pathway that offers the most attractive risk-adjusted returns and the greatest potential to create long-term value for our shareholders. The assessment has been encouraging, indicating attractive return potential for an integrated hotel and an entertainment, dining, and retail development.
Of course, this remains subject to further technical studies, cost validation, feasibility, and final investment decisions, and I will discuss the findings of this review shortly. I know some of you will hear what follows and will think about risk, about debt, and about how long before you will see a return, and we have thought about those things too. Before I talk about what we intend to build, I want to show you how we will protect your company along the way. Alongside this assessment, our capital management framework provides the guiding principles for how we evaluate investment opportunities and allocate capital across the business. Outside of safety, we believe capital allocation is the most critical discipline for the board and for management. Slide 14 outlines the capital allocation framework that guides our investment decisions. We will not pursue development simply because our planning approval has been granted.
Our capital allocation priorities are clear, and they apply in this order. First, we protect the core business. Safety, maintenance, attraction renewal are funded before any development spending. The parks are not put at risk to build a hotel. Second, we maintain balance sheet strength, ensuring sufficient liquidity and manageable leverage throughout the investment cycle. Third, we invest for growth, but only where the risk-adjusted returns justify the capital required. Finally, where we do not have sufficiently attractive opportunities to deploy capital, we believe that capital should be returned to shareholders. This framework applies equally to investment in our theme parks and any proposed precinct development. Ultimately, every investment must demonstrate that it can generate an appropriate return and contribute to long-term shareholder value. On to slide 15.
With the land rezoning options now available to us, we believe the most compelling way to grow value is to transform Dreamworld into an integrated entertainment destination. Compared with the other paths to growth, it is also a lower risk one. We already own the land, the demand is already on the site, and the model is well proven elsewhere. At its simplest, we want to move from a one-day destination to a place where guests can play, stay, eat, and shop. Importantly, Dreamworld remains our key anchor. The hotel creates an opportunity to turn a day trip into a short holiday, while the entertainment, dining, and retail precinct, or ED&R for short, gives visitors more reasons to stay into the evening and attracts local residents who may not otherwise visit the theme park. This creates a flywheel effect to propel value creation.
A broader offering can attract guests from further away, encourage longer stays, and generate additional, more diverse, and higher-yielding revenue streams. Shared infrastructure and services may also create operational and capital efficiencies. We believe that a hotel, a leisure precinct, and a theme park can collectively create a stronger pull as a destination, attract more visitors, increase dwell time and spending, and reinforce growth. As slide 16 shows, this integrated destination model is well established internationally. We are showing today just two prominent examples of Shanghai Disney and Universal in Orlando. Moreover, both Disney and Universal have continued expanding their on-site accommodation offerings alongside complementary entertainment, dining, and retail precincts, supporting multi-day stays across their global markets. We are certainly not comparing Dreamworld's scale with Disney or Universal. Their capital resources and visitor volumes are very different. However, the underlying principle is relevant.
When guests have more reasons to stay, a destination can capture a greater share of the holiday time and spending. That is the principle we are looking to apply in the context of Dreamworld and the Gold Coast. On slide 17, you can see this approach is not limited to the world's largest theme park operators. We have undertaken extensive research globally in exploring this concept. Our review includes benchmarking regional theme parks attracting approximately 1 million-3 million visitors annually, which is a much more comparable scale to Dreamworld. Of the 58 parks reviewed, 33 have on-site accommodation, representing almost 60% of the benchmark group. That proportion is particularly high in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific. A number of regional operators are also expanding their hotel offerings.
This demonstrates that integrated accommodation with attractions is an established growth strategy for many theme parks operating at a scale very comparable to our park here at Dreamworld. This is clearly not a Disney or a Universal play, but something that we are seeing across regional parks not dissimilar to ours, right across the globe. Slide 18 provides several examples of regional operators that have successfully incorporated accommodation into their offerings. Europa-Park has developed a substantial accommodation offering, while Parc Astérix is planning a fourth hotel. Efteling and Liseberg have both acknowledged that these hotels formed a key part of their growth strategy. Critically, closer to home, Sea World Resort is a familiar example of a theme park operating alongside a hotel and conference facilities right here on the Gold Coast.
I worked for Sea World for a long, long time, so I've seen this model work not in a case study, but I've seen it from the inside. One particularly interesting example is Dollywood in Tennessee. Dollywood attracts more than 3 million visitors annually and successfully operated its offering to include two resort hotels with plans for more accommodation in the years to come, despite the park operating seasonally. It is located in Pigeon Forge, a town with a resident population of only 6,000 people, yet the broader destination attracts approximately 2 million visitors each year. By comparison, Dreamworld benefits from its location within the established Gold Coast tourism market, which attracted approximately 5.8 million overnight visitors in the year ending March 2026. The significance of these examples is not simply the number of hotel rooms.
It is the opportunity to broaden the visitor catchment, encourage longer stays, and create a more complete destination experience. We have spent considerable time studying these examples to understand what might be transferable to Dreamworld, but we recognize that each market has its own characteristics. Slide 19 brings together commentary from industry analysts and operators that reinforces this strategy. A consistent theme is that accommodation and complementary entertainment offerings can extend visitor catchments, support higher room rates, generate more overnight stays, and create complementary revenue streams. I want to make an important distinction. These examples provide strategic evidence for considering the opportunity, but they are not a substitute for our own feasibility work. That leads to what we think is particularly interesting about our own location. This, in our opinion, is Australia's most compelling integrated hotel opportunity.
Slide 20 highlights Dreamworld's unique location in the heart of an established tourism corridor, alongside major attractions including Movie World, Wet'n'Wild, Paradise Country, and Topgolf. Unlike many standalone theme park destinations where hotel demand is largely driven by a single park, Dreamworld's location offers access to several major attractions in close proximity. This creates an opportunity for the proposed hotel to attract families looking to experience multiple attractions during one stay, potentially supporting longer average stays than at comparable single-park destinations. There are also additional sources of demand beyond leisure tourism, the growing Coomera commercial precinct, with a planned 600-bed public hospital opening minutes from the park, marine activity, business travel, and events. Together, these diverse demand sources could help support year-round hotel occupancy and reduce reliance on peak holiday periods. Access to the M1 and to heavy rail is another major advantage.
Looking ahead, the Brisbane 2032 Games will create further interest in accommodation across the broader corridor. Take all of this and add the lack of quality family hotels between Dreamworld and Brisbane, and you can see why we are very interested in this opportunity. Slide 21 illustrates how we are considering the opportunities across the four precincts following the planning approval. The first precinct is the existing theme park business. It is our operating engine, and it remains our immediate priority. The second precinct is a proposed Dreamworld-branded four-star hotel of approximately 250 rooms. At this stage, the indicative investment, inclusive of our land, is approximately AUD 200 million, with completion targeted around 2030 to 2031, subject to all necessary investment decisions and approvals. The third precinct is an integrated entertainment, dining, and retail precinct, with an indicative investment of approximately AUD 60 million, including the land.
We envisage leisure-focused experiences operated primarily by specialist third-party tenants, with the potential to create recurring rental income. Development could be phased to align with demand. The ED&R could be brought online ahead of the hotel, creating earlier cash flows. The fourth precinct provides additional land use optionality, including potential residential and mixed-use development. Let me be clear, we do not intend to become a residential developer. This land is a source of capital. We will realize its value through capital-light options at the right time to ensure that we maximize its worth. Acting too early would leave value on the table. Taken together, these elements create an opportunity to transform Dreamworld into a broader destination whilst maintaining our focus on the core theme park business.
As mentioned earlier, we have worked with Barrenjoey to assess a broad range of strategic alternatives for our landholding. That process is broadly outlined on slide 22. The assessment has intentionally considered every option for each land parcel, including doing nothing, so maintaining the status quo, selling the land, partnering with third parties, and undertaking development ourselves. Doing nothing is not risk-free. It means choosing to leave that value on the table, and waiting has a cost of its own. To do the things that we're proposing today, it will almost certainly never be cheaper than to build in today's existing market. The analysis indicates that leading the development of the proposed hotel and entertainment precinct ourselves represents the most attractive pathway to the alternatives assessed.
That does not rule out capital partners, and we remain open to them where they improve the risk-adjusted outcome for our shareholders. I'll come to funding shortly. That preferred pathway is supported by the potential financial returns, not simply the strategic appeal of these concepts. The analysis indicated a levered internal rate of return of above 20% across the hotel and ED&R, together with an estimated value on completion of approximately AUD 330 million. The modeling also indicated that the proposed developments meet our risk-adjusted return hurdles. These are encouraging findings and reinforce our view that the integrated development could represent a compelling opportunity to unlock the latent value of our landholdings. However, I want to emphasize that these are indicative investment assessments. They are not earnings forecasts or committed outcomes, and they remain dependent upon assumptions around construction costs, demand operating performance, financing, and execution.
Our responsibility is to validate those assumptions before committing significant capital. Slide 23 provides a conceptual illustration of how the proposed integration destination could look. This is not a final design. It is presented to help explain how the various elements might connect. Imagine a shared arrival experience serving the hotel, theme park, and entertainment precinct. Families could stay on the site, visit Dreamworld, enjoy dining or entertainment in the evening, and explore other attractions in the region. The ED&R precinct would also be open to local residents without requiring a theme park ticket. That is important because it broadens the customer base and creates reasons to visit outside the traditional theme park stay. In our discussions with other regional theme park operators, a recurring observation has been that with the benefit of hindsight, they wish they invested in accommodation earlier.
I suspect in 10 years' time, we may look back at this hotel at Dreamworld and wonder why we didn't do it earlier. Our existing footprint has previously accommodated approximately 2.4 million visits a year. We, therefore, have more than sufficient room to grow visitation without having to expand the core theme park footprint. The adjoining land can be used to improve the destination offering rather than simply making the theme park physically larger. The illustration is a visioning tool. It's not a final design, and the layout, the cost, and delivery sequence will evolve as we complete the necessary work. On slide 24, you will see all of the potential funding options available to us. As at June 2026, the group was debt-free with AUD 35 million in cash and a fully undrawn AUD 20 million facility.
In FY 2026, the group also generated positive net cash flows after funding capital expenditure and a share buyback. For the proposed developments, we are considering a range of funding options, including utilization of available surplus cash, incorporating and introducing corporate or project-level debt, potential capital partners, and over time, monetization of non-core land. As we already own the land, that component does not require any funding. I want to be direct on this. Our current strategy does not contemplate a new equity raising. We are conscious of dilution, and we want the benefits of value creation to accrue to existing shareholders. Our preliminary funding assessment indicates that at peak gearing, we could remain within our target range of 30%-35% before reducing as the developments reach stabilized operations.
Once the hotel is open and trading, we have an expectation that recycled capital from this asset at its stabilized value would continue to reduce that debt. At this stage, no final financing package has been agreed, and the ultimate structure must be appropriate for the project and its risk. Our theme parks will continue to receive the investment required for safety, maintenance, and new attractions, supported by available cash and operating cash flows. Ultimately, our funding approach will be disciplined, with a clear focus on protecting the core business whilst delivering long-term value for our shareholders. Slide 25 outlines the robust process we follow in terms of crystallizing this land value. It is a staged process with clear decision gates before significant capital is committed. We have already contemplated the additional land approval, the initial land approval, and completed that work.
We've completed concept and market assessments and preliminary feasibility and funding reviews. We are now progressing master planning, technical design, and independent cost validation. From there, the process will move through the necessary development applications, engineering, tendering, and financing arrangements. At every step, there are clear board decision gates. At each stage, we will assess whether the underlying assumptions remain valid, including market demand, construction costs, funding terms, and expected investment returns. If these conditions are not met, we retain the flexibility to pause, resize, restage, or reconsider the proposed development. The indicative timeline contemplates development delivery between 2028 and 2030, with a targeted opening of around 2030 to 2031. However, this remains subject to feasibility approvals, funding, and final investment decisions. I will be plain about the trade-off. This asks you for patience. This value comes over several years, not this year.
But we believe this is a meaningful opportunity here, and our opportunity is to pursue it with the financial and operational discipline that shareholders should expect. Turning to slide 26. In summary, we are not ready to announce unconditionally today that we are building any of this, but we are signaling our strong intention to do so based on the preliminary work done to date. As I have outlined, our proposed process has clear decision gates along the way, which allow the board to retain the capability to adjust our plans as information comes to hand. We believe we have conducted a rigorous process to come to this position, and we believe that this is the most rational pathway to grow value for the company and its stakeholders. First, we have considered a broad range of alternatives, including development, partnerships, land monetization, in consultation with Quandamooka.
Second, as demonstrated by the international and regional examples I have discussed earlier, integrated theme park destinations are a proven and well-established model. This is a tried and tested concept in destination parks like Disney and Universal, in regional parks across the world, and indeed, in a place very proximate to where we are meeting here today. From a risk perspective, we are not pioneering here. This is not particularly seminal. Third, our preliminary assessment is further bolstered by Dreamworld's location and surrounding demand drivers, which are unique and superior to almost every regional theme park case that we have studied.
Few, if any, of these parks have neighboring theme parks with no hotel of their own, a major new hospital on the neighboring land, a burgeoning marine and industrial precinct nearby, an undersupplied hotel market with no quality family accommodation between Dreamworld and Brisbane, or anything like the Olympic Games being on the horizon. And finally, we believe that this approach has the potential to create incremental earnings, diversify our revenue streams, and create significant long-term shareholder value whilst complementing our existing theme park business. Importantly, we have the right experience. The board and management team brings extensive global and regional experience in integrated destinations and hotel operations, providing expertise to guide these investment decisions and their execution. Ultimately, our objective is to unlock value in a disciplined way that creates sustainable long-term returns for our shareholders.
So let me finish on slide 27 with the key messages I would like you to take away today. Our core operating business is stronger, with four consecutive years of positive theme park earnings and attractions EBITDA, positive cash flows in FY 2026, and we continue to see meaningful growth opportunities in the parks, particularly with attendance still below historical levels. The recent planning approvals unlock significant opportunities for our landholding, including a potential hotel entertainment precinct and options for surplus land, all of which we think would complement and strengthen our existing theme park business. And finally, we recognize that potential asset value is not the same as realized shareholder value. Our focus is on bridging this gap through stronger execution, disciplined investment decisions, and appropriate funding and clear execution milestones.
I say this as a shareholder myself, we are very optimistic about the future of the group, but we intend to earn that optimism through delivery. Thank you for your continued support, and I will 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 30 June 2026. The remuneration report will be put to 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?
Yes.
Yes, sir.
I am curious to know.
Sorry, we will get you a microphone.
Go for it, mate.
Although that may be a bit more than is needed, but anyway.
Hello. My name is Richard Logan. I am a shareholder. Just curious to know why our annual reporting goes from the last Tuesday in June to the last Tuesday in June. For a business that is open nearly every day of the year, wouldn't it be neater to be able to measure it just the 30th of June every year?
There are reasons which José will explain to you in technical terms.
In the past, when we had many different businesses, we did have a static June 30 year end. The disadvantage of doing that is that depending on how the year falls, you might have some years with 53 weekends in them, as opposed to other years, which might have as few as 51. Sometimes that creates a bit of incomparability with the annual report. Operating on a retail reporting calendar, which is very common in the retail sector, we report on 52 weeks every year, and that way you know that every year you are looking at, there is going to be 52 weeks. There is a slight nuance to that, because 52 weeks does not equal a year.
It is one day short of a year, so every year, our year end will get earlier, and every fourth or fifth year, we do actually need to add an extra 53rd week, otherwise we would be perpetually getting earlier. So FY 2026 was a 53-week year for that reason. The primary reason is just to make the results comparable so that you know you have got 53 weeks, sorry, 52 weeks, 52 weekends, which are obviously the busier parts of each week in each financial year.
It is made around every year, except this year. This year is the missing one because it is 53 weeks.
Yeah, and you will see that every fourth or fifth year, depends on leap years and the like. But every so often we have to do that, otherwise the year end would just get earlier and earlier.
It is all pretty clear then. Right. Any other questions in the room? Okay, Chris, any questions online?
There was a question asked of the auditor, and I will read it. "BDO replaced EY as our auditor in 2024. Could the BDO audit signing partner, Tim Mann, who is in the room, please summarize the changes to reported key audit matters since BDO became our auditor, and what was the next most likely issue that was considered for inclusion as a key audit matter in the latest audit, but ultimately didn't make the cut?
Thank you, Chris, and through you, Chair. My name is Tim Mann. I am the audit partner on Dreamworld, on Coast Entertainment. Just to respond to that question, from recollection, I believe the prior auditor had one key audit matter in 2024, which related to the recoverability of the Dreamworld assets and the property plant and equipment. Similar to that, we have one key audit matter this year, which relates to the valuation of the Dreamworld CGU. Probably one of the key differences from 2024 is not only are we looking at whether there is any indicators of impairment, but with the improved results that have been talked through today, we are also considering whether there is any indicators of a reversal of those previous impairments that have been recorded in prior years.
To look at that, we did similar processes where we looked at the management's internal value in use calculation and looked at the key judgments and assumptions that are included in there. We engaged with our internal experts as well to review that model and the assumptions that have been applied, and we also looked at the external valuation that management had engaged, and perhaps José de Sacadura can talk to that in a second as well. That's probably the key change in the key audit matters that we've had this year. The second part of the question, when we look at what some of the other areas that we considered, similar to a lot of listed companies, revenue is one that we look at. It's generally a significant risk that we focus on. However, it is a relatively straightforward process for us to audit that.
While we do a number of procedures on it, we didn't consider it to be a key audit matter. The second area that we did consider was the recoverability of the deferred tax assets, and in the presentation, you've seen discussion on amounts that have been recognized on the balance sheet. There are further tax losses that can be recognized, but we worked with management to understand the amounts that have been recognized and the forecasts that supported that to see if that could be whether we concurred with that treatment. That's probably a summary of the key audit matters. I'm not sure if the person that asked that's in the room, but otherwise, I'll hand back.
Thanks, Tim Mann. Chris Todd, any other questions?
No further questions, Gary.
Okay. Resolution one, the notice of meeting is to adopt the remuneration report for the year ended 30 June 2026. The remuneration 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 on resolution one that do not comply with the voting exclusion requirements of the Corporations Act as set out in the notice of meeting. I move that the company's remuneration report for the financial year ended 30 June 2026 be received, considered, and adopted. The proxy results received for this resolution are on the screen. Are there any questions in the room in relation to this matter? There appear to be none. Chris, any online questions?
No, Gary.
Thank you. I will now move to the next items of business. The next two resolutions concern the re-election of myself and Randy Garfield as directors of the company. I will now hand over the chair of the meeting to David to read resolution two.
Thank you, Gary. Resolution two in the notice of meeting is to re-elect Dr. Gary Weiss AM as director of the company. Details in relation to Gary's background, experience, and qualification have been provided in the notice of meeting. I move that Dr. Gary Weiss AM, 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 from those persons present in relation to this resolution?
Yeah, it is pretty well related to this. Assuming Gary gets elected today, we will have two out of our four Directors based in Australia. We have just recently lost one Australian-based Director. I guess that is a little unusual for a solely Australian-based business. Is there any intention to expand the board or get any more Directors that are Australian-based?
Gary, would you like to?
The short answer to that question is yes. Not seeking to leave the response to that, can I just say how privileged and we are served by having overseas Directors of the caliber of Randy and Erin. Two Directors absolutely steeped in every operation aspect of running a theme park. We are incredibly grateful to the contribution that they make to this company. We were very sad to see Jemma leave us. There were a number of issues, particularly relating to her new role as a part-time owner of the Gold Coast Titans, which if you are a follower of the Titans and have a look at the team jersey, you will find that our rival is down the road as one of their principal sponsors. That created an issue. As I said, very sorry that Jemma left us. She made enormous contribution here.
Coming back to your question, yes, we have the intention to appoint at least one new Australian-based Director to the board in coming months.
I am very happy to have you reelected. I am just curious, do you have history with, because you have a long history of doing financial matters, hotel development. Is there, like, hotel development experience on the board, or perhaps you have done something similar to this before, or what talent will you draw on at the board level apart from external consultants?
In specific terms, we do not have hotel development experience. But around the table, we do have considerable experience in terms of property development, and most relevantly in the case of particularly Erin, significant involvement in Disney's theme parks. Greg, if I am correct, Erin ran Magic Kingdom, I think, for
Yeah, she had
For Disney
Carriage for several of the parks in Orlando and also responsibility for the hotel operations at Disney as well. Some of that is obviously related to the operations of the hotels, and I understand as well distinctly has responsibility for the feasibility and consideration for future hotels as well. I think the board table certainly has that experience. Then in addition to that, around the management ranks, we certainly have experience both in terms of local theme park hotels, and we have a lot of experience in the management ranks, particularly from a core, and other areas as well. Now, we intend, given the scale of what we're proposing today, to bring on the appropriate consultants, particularly around the construction feasibility, particularly around the project management elements of that.
We have a very good track record, I would say, in terms of significant capital investments and then coming in on time and on budget in a difficult environment. But we appreciate this is a significant investment potentially, and so as a result, we would want to bring the best people to the table.
Chris, have we received any online questions in relation to the reelection of Gary?
Yes, there's a couple there, David. I'll just They're quite long. I'll just read a summary of the first one, and part of it may be answered by you and the other part by Gary. It comes from Stephen Mayne. It refers Gary, to Gary's dealings with Village Roadshow's owner, private equity firm BGH, over the past year in voting support arrangement at Webjet. The question was the full Coast board aware of the chair's dealings with our biggest competitor? The second part of the question, to Gary, did you have any discussions with BGH about ownership arrangements with Dreamworld, Sea World, and Movie World?
Well, I can answer the first affirmatively. Gary, if you want to answer the second.
Sure. Why don't you go first and then-
Oh, I have. I said yes, we were aware of it.
Yeah. The short answer to the second question is no, other than the fact that obviously, we both operate in the same industry and beyond broad discussion about the industry, both here and globally, the short answer is no.
Okay. There is a second question on this resolution that comes from Stephen Mayne again. Gary, it refers to the various boards and other similar positions that you hold. What percentage of time does Gary devote to Coast matters? Are you intending to serve a full three-year term? When you finally slow down, where will Coast rank in your priorities? Also, the final part of the question, did any proxy advisor recommend against your reelection today?
Okay. It was a raft of questions there dealing with the last one. The proxy advisory firm ISS recommended against my reelection on the basis that I apparently have a disease called over-boarding. I note that the report provided by ISS, provided no qualitative analysis of the contribution that I have made to this company since my appointment. In terms of my attention to this company, aside from being Chairman, I am also representing a group that has a very large ownership position in this company. I approach my role here as being a very interested and diligent part owner of this business, and that reflects my level of involvement and dedication to the business. As to the level of my involvement, I might ask Greg to comment about the extent of my very intrusive presence during each and every day that he occupies his role.
Thanks, Gary. Look, I do not propose to share my mobile phone received call log with the meeting today, but I can assure you of this, is that I talk to Gary every single day, weekends as well, and I am very happy to. Gary is incredibly interested in what is happening here, and has a command of the numbers that is very impressive given he has these other responsibilities which have been outlined. Gary is in the parks and at SkyPoint on a regular basis, at least once a month, and is just across the business in fine detail. Knows the people, not only executives, but knows cleaners at Dreamworld and has a relationship with them. So, I completely understand this notion around over-boarding, but I think you need to take into consideration the capacity of the person. In this instance, I am well aware of Gary's involvement.
He is involved with me on a daily basis and in a constructive way. This is not about Gary ringing me on a daily basis asking, "What is the numbers? What is happening?" Although we do have those conversations. Gary is particularly interested in how we are looking to grow this business over the long run. So, I could not speak more highly of my engagement with Gary. In fact, it is one of the fundamental reasons that I remain here at Coast.
I can speak also on behalf of the other members of the board. We are astounded at the amount of time and effort and creativity and enthusiasm that Gary puts into this company every day. It was extremely disappointing to get a report as we did from ISS, because it shows that there is really a lack of understanding of the actual participation of Gary in the day-to-day operations of Dreamworld and in leading this board. I can happily speak on behalf of all the directors saying we have absolutely no concerns about the fact that he has other responsibilities, and we are delighted to continue to serve under the board under his leadership. Are there any more questions, Chris?
No, that is it.
Okay. Thank you. I will pause the response regarding the online questions response. Thank you. I will now hand the chair. Haven't I got to pass the resolution?
Thank you, David. For those present, you may notice I did not interrupt any of the comments of Greg and David. It reminds me of a quote attributed to Oscar Wilde that is along the lines that the flatterer is seldom interrupted. Anyway.
Gary, do we actually have to pass the resolution?
No, it is going to be done on the.
Okay.
So, resolution 3 in the notice of meeting is to re-elect Randy Garfield as the Director of the company. Details in relation to Randy's background, experience, and qualifications have been provided in the notice of meeting. I move that Randy Garfield, 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 in the room relating to the resolution? Appear to be none. Chris, any online questions?
No, there is no questions on this resolution, Gary.
Right. Thank you. Before closing the meeting, I will take any questions of a general nature which have not been specifically addressed as part of the preceding items of business or the business update. Ladies and gentlemen, this is your opportunity. This is a company that you are part owners of, so please feel free to pepper us with any questions that you have.
We are likely to get an interest rate rise in a couple of hours' time. Have you noticed in the previous interest rate rises, do they have any effect on visitation or spend?
No, as we have outlined in September, trading performance results, we are happy with how things have been going to date. Someone's phone. We make no bones about the fact that it is a difficult environment. We have a Reserve Bank which is tasked with the idea of trying to reduce people's discretionary spending, and they have a very blunt object in which to use to do that. Our job is to try to extract the best spend we can out of the people that come to our businesses and attract them to our business in the first place. I think when we think about what we are doing in terms of our competitive positioning, there are not many more, well, I do not think there are any better value prospects out there for family entertainment than what ours is.
What we have seen over a long time in this segment has been that despite the fact that things are difficult out there, people have a strong bias towards escapism and trying to get out even when things are difficult. I think that is well reflected if you look at certain vices, if you will, in difficult economic times. I think ours is a very healthy vice. It is a place to go and have fun and enjoyment with your family. We are not seeing a lot of challenges with that. I do not profess that that will continue forever. I think the key thing I have said in every instance in this regard is that this is an episodic situation. This won't go on forever.
I think what we're trying to do is make sure the business is well-positioned so that when this does lift, that we're in the best position to create further value for our holders.
One last question from me. Sounds like previously the assumption or the preference was to get someone else or partner with someone to build the hotel and operate the hotel.
Yep.
It seems like the preference now is for financial reasons to develop it ourselves. Is that also operated ourselves? That's the intention or the preference at the moment?
Yeah, I think the words that you're using are exactly right. That's our preference. But we remain open-minded to capital partners. I think what we've tried to do today is prosecute the case very clearly as to why we feel so convinced and have such a strong degree of conviction about what we're proposing to do with the hotel. I think we've outlined today that this is a very, very proven approach. Universal and Disney have been doing it for a long time, and we were remiss today, I think we talked about Erin on the board, but Randy on the board as well has a significant degree of experience both at Universal and at Disney. If I was you and you had management saying, "Well, look at Disney, look at Universal, why don't we do the same thing?" I'd be very concerned.
That is why we have also said to you that if you look at regional theme parks around the world, a host of very good examples. I think in the presentation, we outlined more than half of the regional parks around the world have got hotels on their sites and are continuing to add more. I think the final part, which is very interesting to us, is that there is one here on the Gold Coast. We know it quite well, which again is a proven model. When I look at all of those, and particularly in the regional theme park experience, every one of them is owned and operated by the theme park owner. There are some clear reasons why that is the case. The first one is that they are greedy and they want to keep the profits to themselves and their shareholders.
I think we have the same view. I think the second one is, if you bring other partners in, particularly to operate it, then you have a situation where you have competing KPIs. If you could imagine that we bring in a hotel operator to run our hotel, you have an operator then that has a different degree of what good looks like to what we do. Suddenly we have a hotel GM who is sitting there saying, "Well, how do I get people to stay in the hotel? How do I get them to eat in the hotel? How do I get them to buy tickets from other theme parks and not your theme park?" That creates friction in the whole experience. In our view, the ability to own the guest experience, and to reduce that friction, is a considerable part of our thinking as well.
We are not against the idea of a capital partner, which may reduce the risk of this level of investment, but we are quite opposed to the idea of bringing a hotel management operator in because we have that experience in the business and we feel very comfortable about that side of things.
Just got a couple of quick ones. I might have missed it. Is there a convention part to the I got the hotel, but I might have missed it. Also, while construction is going on, how do you manage the disruption to the park itself? Because that seems like that would be a couple I am assuming the construction is going to be 18 months, 24 months.
Yep
Yeah.
Great question. Let me start with the convention side first. Yes, there's a convention element integrated into our plans. I think the important thing, and we've covered this in a bit of detail, but we think this is, again, the most compelling opportunity in Australia because of a few reasons. The first one, which I'll cover briefly, is that anyone else in the world that's doing this kind of work is relying on one theme park to make their hotel work, and we're relying on our one. Thankfully, our competitor, which is 5 km down the road, they're very welcome to stay in our hotel. So we feel good about the entertainment leisure demand side of things.
Their hotels are open seven nights a week, and so we look at that Monday through Thursday business, and we are very interested in how we can maintain performance through that period. That's why we're so particularly interested in these unique levers of demand that, again, many of these other hotels don't have. We've got a hospital opening in 2031, 600 beds. That will bring additional nights into our hotel. We've got a burgeoning marine precinct with people that are looking for places to stay. We've got a very strong opportunity with the Olympics coming on board. We're not building this hotel for the Olympics. It just happens to be opportunistic for us that if we can capture a lot of that demand, well, we absolutely will. The convention element or the conferencing element is part of that.
You can imagine that we are thinking very deeply about integration in that regard. Our hope is that we want to really leverage the OpEx that we have in that business, and so you can imagine that we would have one kitchen servicing every restaurant in the hotel and the convention side of that business. The thing I'd also say about this hotel and the ED&R is we're actually, in my mind, being very conservative about what we're looking to build. Sea World Resort here is 405 rooms. You might be aware that Village had lodged a DA for a hotel at Movie World of 600 rooms, and here we are proposing 250 rooms. I think our view is we're not looking to build the Taj Mahal here. We're trying to build a very conservative, high-quality asset.
I would much prefer to be dealing with an issue in due course, which is, gee, we have got too many people and not enough rooms. That is a quality problem to have than to deal with a situation where we have got a hotel which we are trying to keep full. We feel really good about that prospect with conventions and all the other elements of unique demand, that will fill that Monday to Thursday pocket, through the week. Again, it is all right-sized, so we are not looking to build a Gold Coast Convention Center level experience in our hotel. It will be right-sized and appropriate for what we are looking to do there. In terms of the construction risk around that, look, funnily enough, this is probably the lowest risk construction project we have done in some time.
We have built large precincts in the middle of a theme park, and we have had to manage those things very carefully. If you look at what we have proposed in terms of the visual reference in the presentation, I would say this is that firstly, it is an indicative idea, but I think the flow is absolutely what we are intending to do in terms of a hotel, and then an ED&R that flows through to the front of the park. You would note there that we can essentially annex off that land and do that work without really having any impediments on the theme park itself. We spent a lot of time thinking about the construction methodology, and in my mind, this is actually relatively straightforward.
Things are always a lot harder than what they initially seem, but I think in terms of just where the location of these assets are proposed, I think it is something that we can absolutely manage without any disruption to the park.
Good morning. Thanks. So much information today. Three things. You just mentioned the other proposed hotel, Village Roadshow. Do you know the current state of play with that? Will the hotel be in close enough proximity to Dreamworld that guests can be walked or moved internally so there will not be extra traffic around the outside? Recently, we saw that someone, I think it was the Spotlight Group, bought some land adjoining Dreamworld. Do you know what their plans are for that land, and will it fit in with what you have sort of got planned? Thank you.
No problems. The question around traffic flows and the distance between the hotel and the theme park. We've absolutely designed the flows in our mind to better have people easily walk that distance. We don't want to add additional friction with people having to board a tram or do anything in that end. In fact, we want to give them a very comfortable journey between the hotel and the theme park along a beautiful entertainment, dining, and retail precinct, to help enhance their experience. We feel very good about that. In terms of the Village Roadshow hotel, to the best of our knowledge, that hotel hasn't proceeded any further than DA. We certainly keep an eye on that. We don't profess to be certain about that.
But in terms of what we've seen out there, we don't have any view that they're looking to build that in the near future. We see a unique opportunity there for us to really fill that void. On the third question around the Spotlight Group sale of a piece of land close to us, we understand that it's around 2.8 hectares, at about AUD 30 million. I think that's a very good price, to be frank. We feel that really augurs well for what we're thinking about with our surplus land as well. As to what they're looking to do, I think, again, we don't profess to know exactly. We do know what their business is, and the type of product that they are looking to do, that we see in other elements of their developments around Australia, are quite interesting.
We've seen a lot of really good kind of big box retail concepts from them, which we think would be quite complementary in terms of bringing more traffic to the area. The thing I would say is that Coomera is just a hive of activity. Don't believe us. Have a look at the amount of additional investment going into Coomera. Have a look at Westfield and what they've been doing, Costco and what they've been doing. We think that the Spotlight Group coming in, very savvy investors, very smart operators, is only another testament to just how strong the opportunity here is in Coomera.
Thank you.
Dr. Gary, my name's Edward White, representing Razanover Property Limited. Could I ask you what the final cost of The Claw was, and are the results in line with what you expected?
Sorry, the results from what?
King Claw.
The Claw.
I might ask Greg to address that. Thanks.
Yeah. José can give you the specific number, but I will give you my view on it all, is that the King Claw project came in under budget. José will specify exactly how much it was, and on time. We are very, very pleased with the performance that King Claw has brought, and you can see that in the full-year results presentation. I would say this to you, is that when we announced King Claw, we spent a lot of time talking about the fact that we were lukewarm around doing it. We did it because the board had a strong view, which management supported, that the old Claw attraction had reached life, or reached its end of life.
It was the best proposal in terms of putting in an alternative, and we considered every other alternative, which was closing the ride, putting in a cheaper ride, putting in the same ride. The board pushed us to think bigger and to put something in of high quality that was going to have some kind of ticketing value. In my experience, the second version of an attraction typically is harder to sell tickets on. A lot of people were very close to it, and we go, "Well, look, it is materially different." I think some people come in and go, "Oh, it looks the same. Maybe it is a different color." That has not been our experience in this case.
In fact, we can actually chart the performance of the parks since the King Claw attraction opened, and we saw a really strong ticketing impact as a result of that new attraction. To be fair, it performed better than we had anticipated. José, to the numbers?
Yeah. So the number that we guided before we built it was AUD 14 million, and that's pretty much where it came in, AUD 14 million for King Claw.
Right. And for the avoidance of doubt, I haven't gone on the ride.
Nor have I.
Absolutely frightening. But thankfully, there's a large cohort of our guests who love it, so and guest reviews have been absolutely excellent.
I'm not sure if this is the right place to bring this up, but just as a long-term shareholder, since its inception, I know we always used to have complimentary tickets to Dreamworld, and just wondering if there's any plan for that, because we've been with you right from the very beginning and following you. I'd also like a comment. I've been seeing in the media how you're combining with Australian Geographic, and what are the plans for that with the new investments that are happening currently?
On the first question, I'd say this firstly. I appreciate your long-term interest in Ardent and then Coast, and so we very much appreciate your time with us and what has been somewhat of a roller coaster along the way. We're certainly very open to looking at, particularly in your instance, what we can do around helping you out in terms of coming to our parks and seeing what we do. So we're happy to talk to you after today and have that conversation. We're always looking at benefits for shareholders, who are, again, our owners, and what else we can do to have them have a better interest in what we're looking to do in our properties. As Gary says, along the way, on a regular occurrence, seeing is believing. There is no better way to understand your investment than to come to the parks.
We're very happy to welcome any shareholder to the parks at any time. In terms of the Australian Geographic engagement, look, it's been tremendous for us. We've partnered with Australian Geographic in our animal precinct, and particularly around education. We feel particularly excited about what we're doing with AusGeo. It brings huge gravitas to what we're doing in the animal area. We have a very strong eye towards conservation, but there is none better than AusGeo in that regard. That really assists how our animal area is perceived in the market. I think particularly what that does is for our education business. Education for us is critical. If we think about conservation, the future is in young people. Having a really high-quality education offer is tremendous for us.
We've been doing a lot of work with them. We've got what I think is probably the best education program in the country now. When I look at what they're doing, it really is thought about from a teacher's perspective. If anyone knows teachers and what it's like to be a teacher, they have no time. They are completely time poor. Whatever we can do to make their day easier and reduce their workload and put tools in their hands and help them deliver great outcomes to the students is really important. The work that the AusGeo has been doing with us on that has been tremendous.
Any other questions? Yeah.
Is there any update in terms of, or thoughts on international visitation and that plug in that deficit that's there from China? It seems like locally it's never been better, but that overseas visitors still missing, or absent a little bit?
Yeah. Look, we'll be abundantly clear here. It is tough in international for the destination. We've called out in the past that visitation to the Gold Coast from international markets in general is 40% behind what it was pre-COVID. What is a telling statistic is that China is 70% behind what it was pre-COVID, which is a huge number. What are we doing about that? I think what we're particularly focused on here is not spending money going after people that we can't move ourselves. We are particularly bullish about our business, but the idea of us spending money in China or Southeast Asia or other destinations, I think is filled with risk and very unlikely to deliver a return.
Our view is that the destination has to do the heavy lifting there, and our job is to make sure that we make sure that they're abundantly clear as to the opportunity that will come if they can do that job. Are we focused on those markets? We are doing all the requisite things you would expect that when that visitation comes back on board, that we will capitalize on it when it comes, but we're not looking to go and spend marketing money in China or all those other areas. What I would say is this, what we are seeing is a steady continued growth. We would like to see it higher. Our numbers reflect that our share of international visitation coming back into the destination is better than the average share coming into the destination as well.
We feel good about what is coming. If anyone was to say to you that they know when it is going to be back, they are not telling you the truth. I think destination marketing bodies are very focused on telling a good story. When we say that China is 70% behind what it was pre-COVID, a destination marketing organization would say, "We are 30% of pre-COVID numbers." We just say it how it is, and it is 70% behind. What we are particularly excited about, though, is New Zealand. New Zealand for us is absolutely flying at the minute.
We have done some tremendous work in the New Zealand market, organically in New Zealand, but particularly shareholders might have noticed that we did a really interesting activation with the New Zealand Warriors, where we transformed the theme park into Wahsworld for a week leading up to their clash with the Gold Coast Titans. If you were in the park on that day, it was a fantastic day, tremendous. The park was absolutely full, and really great engagement. What we were actually more interested in was the social media impact of that, and the reach that we achieved in New Zealand through that period was just immense. When we went through our last September school holiday period, our New Zealand results were very, very happy. We were very happy with them, and we attribute a lot of that to the New Zealand Warriors activation.
Our view is very much that if you are coming from New Zealand to Australia, and particularly the Gold Coast, that Dreamworld is the first theme park on your mind. I think that also goes to our local strategy, and we have said this a lot. If we can win in the local market around annual passes, there are benefits that endure from that in terms of secondary markets for us. If you can envisage this, if we had a family on the Gold Coast that had annual passes, and then they had extended family visiting from New Zealand, if they have Dreamworld tickets, we know where they are going to come. For us, winning in the local market is actually conducive to winning in other markets as well, and so we have that firmly in our minds as well.
Any other questions? Chris, any online questions?
Yes, there are four questions. Two of them relate to the land, so I might group those together. All were asked by separate people. One regards per cap spending and one regards AI. Starting in order with the one regarding per cap spending. "With many pass holders from first half 2026 now due to renew, is the renewal rate holding before Lost Mine Mayhem opens? And with a larger pass holder base beyond the annual dining pass, are there more ways to lift per cap spend without putting up prices, such as introducing an annual Ride Express and seasonal Slide Express, a premium dining pass for seasonal food and Jane's Rivertown Restaurant, annual drink passes, animal experience packs to use throughout the year, or introducing bundles like the Ultimate Pass Pack as permanent options?" Comes from Spencer Wright.
Yeah, I am happy to take that one. I think the first one is in relation to our retention rates. We have outlined that this is a critical focus area for management. We have several members of the board that have got experience in these lifetime value businesses, and so I would say this, is that regional theme parks in Australia and globally have been particularly immature in terms of how we think about retention management and lifetime value of our guests. Our retention rates are materially higher than what they were even two years ago. In fact, double what they were even two years ago. But we are far from happy with where they are, and so we are continuing to work hard at that.
In terms of how it is today, we have not seen any material declines, and we are constantly looking at the retention rate compared to how many passes we are selling. It is one of the things that we look at every single week across the board. In terms of per cap spending and are we looking at other ways to increase per cap spending, we do that every single day. If you are a follower of us in the market, you will see that we are constantly putting new offers out, constantly trying and testing new initiatives. On any given week, we have probably 70 offers out in the market across social media that we are trying to talk about in terms of different elements of the business, be it food, be it animal experiences, be it retail offers.
We have got a number of programs, as I think Spencer has alluded to, one being Dreamworld Plus. We are very happy with how that is going. We are excited about that proposition, and season dining. At the same time, I think what we are focused on at the moment is making sure that we execute what we are doing in the business really well. There is a raft of things we could be doing across the board. We could be doing 50 or 60 different initiatives, and I think there is a degree of wanting to test and try a lot of things. But at the same time, the more we test and try, the less focused we are as an executive team.
We are always trying to find this happy balance between doing the work and trying to make sure that we are trying as many things as we can, but operating the business in a way that we can actually make sure that the things that we are doing, we are doing very well.
Next question comes from Andrew Tan regarding the land. Can you please explain the indicative value, including land value of AUD 200 million and AUD 60 million for the hotel and ED&R respectively? What is the split between the construction cost versus land value for each of these projects? How does this AUD 260 million indicative value correspond to the disclosed value on completion of AUD 330 million?
José, have a crack at that. Yes, so both those amounts are inclusive of the land, and obviously we own the land, so that doesn't require any funding. We do not need to purchase land for these. We are not ready to provide a split between what the land and the construction cost component is. But what I will say is that when you look at the funding of it, I have just mentioned the land obviously does not need to be funded. We do have AUD 35 million of cash on our balance sheet, which is beyond what we need for day-to-day running of the park. We are cash flow generative now, as you would have seen from our accounts last year. So we do anticipate that there will also be a portion of that cost that we will be able to fund.
through surplus cash, if you like, without impacting the park's own CapEx needs and working capital needs. So the actual funding requirement in terms of debt, potential debt, would be somewhat lower. It would not be anywhere near that AUD 260 million. It would be probably closer to AUD 200 million. That is why we were able to say that at its peak, that the gearing level of the group will be within that 30%-35% gearing range. That is a target that we have had in place with the group for as long as I have been here. I have been with the group 15 years. We have had the benefit for the last three or four years of being debt-free. Obviously, we sold Main Event and we have had quite a bit of cash on the balance sheet.
I think we're at a point now where we're generating profitability again, and I think it's time to introduce some of that leverage back into the group. As to the value on completion, Barrenjoey assisted us in the modeling and looking at this, and that value was really struck by looking at what do we think the earnings will be once we've opened the hotel and ED&R, and they're generating stabilized earnings, and a multiple was attached to that. So that's how that value was derived. And obviously, AUD 330 million value on completion is a good way north of the AUD 260 that it's costing us. So it's obviously value accretive for shareholders.
I think just one other thing I'd add is, for the benefit of people in the room and on the call, is that the peak gearing number we're talking about is a worst point in time. So peak gearing, you should think about in this way, which is we've fully drawn all the debt and we haven't opened anything. And so, as you'd imagine, that would be a very short moment in time, and we would very quickly be looking to open these investments and have them at stabilized earning as quickly as we could. So we see that peak earning period in the view that that is a very short moment in time.
And our expectation, based on the modeling that we've done with Barrenjoey, is that we would return to a level of gearing that would be below our target range once these properties have ramped up and are at stabilized earnings.
I'll move on to the next question related to the land from Spencer Wright. "The Dreamworld valuation assumes a AUD 38.5 million uplift from relocating the current carpark. Does the carpark still need to be moved, either fully or partly, and how will parking cope with higher attendance, the hotel, and the ED&R precinct? Could the overflow carpark take some of that load until the land is developed to keep capital costs down in the meantime, or will the overflow carpark be lost before or during development?
I might take that one. In terms of the car parking, it is a fundamental thing on our minds as we think about this development. A quality problem that we have at the minute is that on a regular basis, the carpark is completely full. That is a problem I would much prefer to have than what it has been in the past. Car parking is top of mind, and again, in our experience, particularly the resort here in the Gold Coast that was very proximate to another theme park, the car parking was not enough for needs, and as a result of that really impacted the guest experience. We are very focused on making sure that we provide adequate car parking for these new attractions.
The benefit that we have is we have a lot of lateral land that we are contemplating here, and we are well aware of the costs involved in terms of multi-story car parking or potentially going underground. We have no intention to do those things, and we have very much the intention to use the space in the most capital-efficient way we can. As we think about that, we have certainly contemplated where would hotel guests park, where would ED&R guests park, and then fundamentally, where would the overflow theme park guests park, and how would we manage them being able to transit from wherever they are through to the theme park in an efficient way? We have thought about all those things.
I think our preliminary plans cover that well in terms of capacity, and in my mind, in the most efficient way from a capital perspective as well. You will not see us building basement carparks or anything to that end. I think we have come up with the most efficient way to do it
Okay. Thanks, Greg. The next question relates to the adoption of, the adaptation is the word, of AI in the workplace. "How is the group ensuring that its use of AI does not negatively impact the image of the Dreamworld IP? Will we strive to use high-quality human-produced content to reflect the quality we want to provide to our guests?" Comes from shareholder Dylan Baines.
Yeah. The board management are particularly interested in the adoption of AI, and we're very studious about AI, I think, in the Australian market and globally. I would say this, is that I'm particularly happy with our adoption of AI to date because I think we're spending a rational amount of investment around AI and producing outsized returns as a result of that. I can give you several examples. I think the thing that I would say, though, before I go into those, is there are moments in time where we think that using AI is just sufficient for us to do it. If I just talk about the render that we've outlined today, it was certainly AI-assisted, and we make no bones about that.
We could have spent AUD 35,000 on having an architect produce a render, which is going to change three times between now and then. We just don't see any value in doing those things. We understand that there are portions of people that think about AI and think it's a terrible thing. Our view is that we are trying to use AI in the most efficient way we can to produce value. I think this question might be asserting that our use of AI for renders for a new attraction potentially is a poor use of AI. My view is if I can save a significant amount of money on a concept drawing, I can put all that money into a better attraction in the end.
My view is far more about delivering a great attraction than delivering a picture that people are happier about because we didn't use AI. That is our attitude towards it. We think it is here to stay. This is not 3D TV. We see the investment outside in terms of AI, and we feel very good about it. In terms of how we're using AI in our business, we have a very strong bias towards analog experiences for our guests. We think that people can do incredible things on their phone and digitally in their own lounge room. For us to do those kind of things in our parks is not, in our view, a good way to discriminate against those kind of experiences. We're all about trying to provide things at our parks that you can't do at home.
Our instigation of AI in our parks has the same way, or has the same view. We don't want you to feel like there's AI driving what we're doing in our parks, but we're using AI to try to really enhance the guest experience. Let me give you one pragmatic example, which is robotics and AI-related, which is that every rubbish bin in our parks will be monitored, so we can see how much rubbish is in it at any one point in time. We have a cleaning team which is responsible for going around and keeping the bins emptied all day. At the moment, they start at one end of the park and go around the other end and empty 100 bins.
Out of those 100 bins, 70 or 80 of them probably don't need to be emptied, yet we go through and open the bin and check every single time. Our ability to go and go to a particular location and do that job, then go back and then be able to help guests in our food areas and other areas in the park, we think is an efficient way of using our team, and a much more efficient approach to how we do a job like that. Then if we use AI to look at how many times we're emptying certain bins at certain times and certain days, we can then think about more bins, bigger bins, and all these other kind of elements to that particular problem.
I'm sure you're a little bit surprised that we're talking about emptying bins at an AGM, but I think it goes to illustrating just how we think about it, is using technology and robotics and automation to solve friction elements in our business that really impacts the guest experience. Across the board, that's how we're thinking about it. If I think about the ability to forecast attendance, for example, and I've been in this industry for over 20 years now, thought I was pretty decent about forecasting attendance. I can tell you now that I'm not very good at it compared to AI. We can tell you within about 5% what attendance will be next Saturday.
We've got a model that has about 80 different inputs going into that model, from weather, to aviation inputs, to hotel accommodation, general economic conditions, which all factor into what we think attendance will do next Saturday. Again, as I say, it's within 5%. What does that do? Well, that means that when we are planning and projecting our rostering and our staffing for those days, we can make much more considered judgments around how we deliver a guest experience. There was a weekend about 3 or 4 weeks ago where we predicted attendances were far in excess of what we anticipated, and as a result of that, management made the decision to open the parks later and to really ramp up our staffing, and I think that was absolutely accretive to EBITDA performance over that weekend.
We delivered a much better guest experience, and we actually made more in-park revenue than we otherwise would have if we closed at 5:00 P.M. Now, a competitor, they closed at 5:00 P.M., and I watched the reviews, and they were not particularly positive to that decision. I think that's another example of things that we're doing, which is trying to use AI to just enhance the guest experience on a daily basis.
There is one final question that has come in. I will ask it and then provide a brief response to it. It comes from Stephen Mayne. He wants to make a, sorry, let me start that again. Make a comment and then a question. "With this excellent hybrid AGM format, you are getting very close to AGM best practice. Thank you for following the agenda today, calling for questions on each item, and for disclosing the proxies early to the ASX. All you need to do to be a top 10 company for AGM practice is to publish the full AGM webcast and disclose the headcount data in the poll results. Given that Suncorp, ASX, Qantas, Myer, Tabcorp, Stockland, and many others do this, when will you make the switch and reveal how many shareholders voted for and against each item?" I am happy to take that on notice.
At the moment, we provide the overall proxy results, which you would have seen on the screen, and not the individual vote results from for and against, which there is no requirement to do. We will consider that on notice and prior to next year's AGM.
Thank you. No other questions?
No, that is all.
Last chance. Someone's going to Mel will bring you the microphone. Thank you.
I just noticed that there is a lot of self-contained motor homes on the road that have difficulty in finding accommodation down the coast, and difficulty in traveling during peak time. Is there an opportunity if someone buys a pass, they could get a Monday to Thursday use of the car park as a promotion, and then that could be promoted through the Caravan Camping Association and many other places?
Yeah. It's a good idea. To be frank with you, we haven't contemplated it, so we'll take it on notice, have a look. To your point, the issue that we have is really around using up our car park on the weekends because it's full pretty much every weekend now, but I think your note about Monday to Thursday makes a lot of sense. So, let us entertain that and have a look at it. It's a good idea. Thanks.
Thank you. Any further questions? Okay, so that now formally concludes the 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. For everyone here today, we'll be having some light refreshments immediately following the meeting closing. Before I- Finally, thank you all for your support and your attendance here today. Can I just make the observation that this is truly, I think, one of the most exciting times to be a shareholder in this company. I don't need to elaborate on the fact that the last few years have been particularly difficult to resurrect the park, to win back the trust of our community. That has been an incredibly difficult job.
Couple that with the need to reinvest back into the park, then overlay that with a once-in-a-century event in the terms of the COVID epidemic, which nearly saw the end of the park. It was an existential issue for this group. Here we are today. You can see that the performance is rebounding very, very strongly. We are in an excellent financial position. We have no debt. We own some fantastic assets, including the SkyPoint facility that you are here today. We have truly an outstanding, indeed, a world-class management team. We have succeeded in achieving the master plan approval for our landholdings in Coomera. This was an exercise that eluded success for previous boards of this group, but we now have it. What Greg Yong has outlined to you today is, I believe, truly exciting.
If you can project forward a few years, I think the results for all of us who are owners of this company are going to be particularly pleasing. I think it is not only exciting for us, I think it will be very exciting for the Gold Coast community. As I said before, I couldn't be more excited by the opportunities that we see today. On that optimistic, but I believe realistic note, I want to thank you all for your attendance today, and please join us for some light refreshments. Thank you.