Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for dialing in. With me today, I have Greg Dean, Director of Finance; David Stone, our Company Secretary; and Mathew Duff, Director of Commercial. Okay. While the year continued to be materially impacted by the pandemic, the second -half performance of each of our divisions that were open clearly demonstrated that when government restrictions are lifted, demand returns quickly. In entertainment, with 80% of cinemas in the U.S. opened by the end of the year and cinemas reopening globally, studios began to release blockbuster films. We evidenced the immediate demand from customers returning to cinemas, an example of that being Easter 2021 weekend outperforming the pre-COVID Easter 2019 weekend.
By the fourth quarter, U.S. hotel occupancy had reached 60%, and despite various interstate and international travel restrictions, the group's hotels in Australia and New Zealand experienced quarter-on-quarter improvement in trading, reaching 63.1% occupancy in the fourth quarter with QT reaching 69.6%. At Thredbo, government restrictions delayed the start of the winter season and capped the available audience to around 50%. However, the changes we've made to the model offset the impact and delivered an EBITDA margin improvement. Also in line with the growing demand relating to health and well-being experiences, we had a record result in summer, which contributed to Thredbo achieving an incredible full-year result. Revenue in the second half exceeded the first half in the comparable half -two period for Entertainment Australia and New Zealand and Hotels and Resorts.
Overall, the strong return of demand for our businesses, combined with our active cost management and government support where available, underpinned all divisions achieving positive EBITDA for the second half. We saw a significant turnaround from H1 group EBITDA loss of AUD 31.1 million to a full-year group EBITDA of AUD 27.2 million and a positive operating cash flow in the second half of AUD 49 million to keep net debt at pre-COVID-19 levels. In total, we achieved AUD 264 million in active cost management savings, excluding government subsidies, since COVID began, thanks to the incredible effort by the team. Next slide. Thank you. This slide illustrates the success of our active cost management in response to closures and restrictions mandated by governments.
It's important to note that this bridge slightly understates these savings as it compares a comparison of the second half costs with the second half of FY 2020, which was also COVID-impacted. Overall, we achieved a total of AUD 158 million in active cost management savings in the year, of which approximately 15% relates to rent abatements agreed with our cinema landlords. As landlords ourselves, we truly understand and appreciate the strong relationships we have with our landlords and the constructive support we've had to date and continue to require as we navigate the COVID-19 period. Next slide. This slide covers the entire COVID-impacted period through to June 2021, with active cost management savings highlighted there at AUD 264 million. Of these, approximately 10% relate to rental abatements agreed with landlords.
There has been and continues to be an extensive amount of remodeling within each of our divisions to create more agile operating models. We believe that some of the changes we've made will deliver longer-term benefits with improved margins post the pandemic. Slide. Despite the COVID-19 headwinds, we are really pleased with the progress on our future growth strategies. To highlight a few points, we achieved a record period of hotel network expansion. We've continued to rightsize the cinema portfolio with fewer best locations and targeted investments in our proven Cinema of the Future concepts. Our new concepts have delivered double-digit growth and key metrics. We've also transformed the Thredbo business model and continue to enhance the on-mountain experience. We've also made good progress on our major developments in Sydney, including adding AUD 37 million to the independent valuation for 525 George Street following the Stage 1 DA approval.
I'll talk more on these later in the presentation. The overall independent value of the group's property portfolio increased to AUD 2.1 billion based on updated valuation reports. After excluding Rydges Melbourne, Rydges North Sydney, and Rydges Queenstown, the portfolio valuations increased 8.4%. In relation to these three properties, Rydges Melbourne's been identified as a priority asset with a major upgrade program in progress. Rydges North Sydney we've identified as a non-core property and is expected to be sold in this financial year. The Rydges Queenstown accommodation wings were closed in February 2019, and work is underway to determine seismic strengthening options. We're on track to realizing the goal of achieving AUD 250 million of proceeds from non-core property asset sales within two years.
Just as a reminder, a non-core property asset is any property that does not relate to our operating businesses and has no potential to be developed into an operating business, or is a property located in city fringe or regional locations, particularly if a significant capital investment is required to stay in business. In terms of the balance sheet, the net debt position has improved to AUD 355.5 million at 30 June from AUD 452 million at the half year and AUD 421 million at June prior year. At 30 June, we had AUD 173.6 million of headroom in our core debt facility, which matures in July 2023. While the medium- to long-term outlook is positive, in the short term, I'm sure you can appreciate it's extremely difficult in the current COVID-19 environment to predict when governments will ease restrictions impacting our divisions.
In terms of the July 2021 result, revenue was AUD 63.7 million, up AUD 17.5 million on prior year, whilst EBITDA was breakeven and up AUD 6.7 million on prior year. It's important to note that the prior year included around AUD 9.6 million in different wage subsidies. Hotels have been the hardest hit, resulting in the first negative EBITDA in July of circa AUD 300,000. The Thredbo audience was materially impacted with the greater Sydney lockdown. This has limited our audience at Thredbo to around 25%-30%. Despite this, Thredbo delivered a positive EBITDA result, but down 40% on prior year. Entertainment New Zealand delivered a positive EBITDA result with blockbusters being released and no COVID-19 restrictions in July. Entertainment Germany delivered a close to breakeven result as the business reopened, Entertainment Australia a negative EBITDA due to lockdowns.
Unlike last year, when studios were not releasing films due to global cinema closures, with many major markets now open, blockbusters are being released, and the lineup is strong. We just need to be open and trade. There's been no direct support from the Australian government with the recent lockdowns across our divisions, and this is a matter we continue to challenge. However, the German government and New Zealand government have support programs that we are eligible to participate in. Currently, we have been mandated to close Thredbo for the first time in our operating history. All businesses in New South Wales and New Zealand are also closed, and other areas are operating under various levels of restrictions. We know that the timing of reopening is outside our control and depends on the success of the vaccination programs in each market.
We're very supportive of vaccination programs and have offered our premises and encourage staff who are able to be vaccinated to participate. We continue to control all that we can control. As we've provided evidence of to date, we've had great success in active cost management. We are confident that as soon as we open and restrictions are lifted, we're going to rebound quickly. Next, please. Now analyzing the results for the year, the numbers really speak for themselves. We all saw a significant turnaround in the second half of the year when restrictions eased and there were signs of a return to pre-COVID-19 demand. Group revenue , excluding the benefit of government subsidies, was AUD 540 million, down 45% on the prior year.
Group revenue in the second half was up 30.9% on the first half. For divisions that were open, all exceeded revenue in the comparable half -year period. The group's unallocated corporate costs were down 12.6% on prior year. This included voluntary salary reductions from myself and my executives and reduced board fees. In addition, no bonus payments were made in the financial year, and no long-term incentive vested. The unallocated cost savings were partially offset by a material increase in insurance premiums of AUD 2 million. Overall, the group's insurance costs escalated to AUD 11.2 million, up 75%, due to extremely challenging insurance market conditions. Overall, EBITDA was AUD 27.2 million, driven by the materially stronger second half. There was a 15.7% improvement in total reported net loss year on year from AUD 57 million to AUD 48 million. Next, please. Turning now to the property division.
We have approximately AUD 2.1 billion in property assets, updated at 30 June on the independent valuations, which reflected the 8.4% increase I've mentioned. We've achieved a significant increase in profit of around 120% above the prior year, driven by a fair value increment of AUD 7 million on our investment properties. Rental revenue is below prior year due to COVID-19 -related rent relief provided to tenants. As I mentioned earlier, good progress has been on our strategy to divest non-core property assets. By June, we had signed contracts for sales realizing AUD 79.6 million of gross proceeds. Of that, AUD 49.3 million was received in the year, with the balance due to settle by September. The total gross proceeds exceeded the most recent valuations for these properties by AUD 29.8 million, a 60% increase.
The assets sold in the year included The Forum Building in Brisbane, which was a retail and commercial office; Double Bay commercial and serviced offices, Port Hacking Road, Miranda, which was a warehouse; Rydges Plaza Cairns Hotel; and Cairns City Cinemas, which actually ceased operations in 2019, and in New Zealand, the Mount Maunganui Cinemas, which ceased operations in 2020. Further non-core properties are being prepared to sell in this financial year and include Rydges Bankstown, Rydges North Sydney, and the Canberra Civic building. We're on track to realize the proceeds of AUD 250 million within two years. Next slide, please. We've continued to make good progress on the major developments.
In relation to the 525 George Street development, the Stage 1 DA approval has driven actually more than that: a $37 million increase in the valuation for this property when compared with the previous valuation. This development includes unlocking 810 sq m of retail space, a cinema with five screens, a hotel with 335 rooms, conference space integrated within the cinema area, and a city-facing bar and restaurant. Above the hotel are 109 apartments. We're targeting a commencement for this development in FY 2023/2024, subject to market conditions. Note that this render that you've seen here is taken from the south looking north, with George Street running down the right-hand side of the image. The hotel entrance will be via King Street. Turning to our 458, 472 George Street developments.
We have DA approval for the podium component, which will include ground floor retail space of 340 sq m on George Street, an extension of the QT Sydney Hotel with 72 additional rooms, a conference center, and a QT rooftop bar. A second DA will be lodged for a commercial office tower above the podium with 33 levels and approximately 34,000 sq m of commercial office space. Subject to market conditions, construction is expected to commence in the 2025/2026 financial year. As we've stated before, we anticipate that a joint venture partner will be identified to assist in funding and developing the commercial office tower component. Turning to hotels and resorts. The hotels' and resorts ' results were particularly pleasing.
We were EBITDA positive even after excluding JobKeeper in every month from September 2020 and achieved this result despite more than 60% of the year being at least somewhat impacted by local government -mandated trading restrictions and obviously international travel restrictions for the full year. In the New Zealand market with fewer COVID restrictions domestically, we achieved overall owned hotel occupancy of 70.2%. However, Australia was more impacted domestically, and we achieved occupancy of 48.6%. We achieved strong market share across each of our brands. Rydges -owned hotel RevPAR declined 10.6 percentage points less than the competitor set. QT RevPAR declined 8.9 percentage points less than the competitor set. Atura RevPAR declined 5.8 percentage points less than the competitor set. Overall, we saw steady quarter-on-quarter growth in key metrics, and RevPAR improved an impressive 106% from quarter one to quarter four.
Our active cost management initiatives in hotels achieved AUD 30.3 million in savings for the year, offsetting around 37% of the revenue decline. These new operating models will continue to support margin improvement when trading conditions normalize. Six new hotels with 913 rooms joined the group in the year. QT Auckland, The Independent Collection, had three hotels, and Rydges also added Rydges Gold Coast Airport and Rydges Formosa Golf Resort in Auckland. We increased our interest in JUCY Snooze to 100% during the year after having taken a 50% share in February 2020. We are really excited about the growth prospects for this brand, and it gives us exposure to the budget accommodation sector when travel restrictions ease. We've also continued to divest underperforming assets, with The Reef Hotel Casino sold during the year for AUD 10 million, which compared favorably to the previous valuation of AUD 6.2 million.
Moving now to the key statistics by brands. Whilst all brands demonstrated strong growth through the course of the year, the owned Rydges Hotels recovery was relatively more subdued due to greater exposure to the Sydney and Melbourne markets, with about half of owned Rydges rooms in those locations, compared to less than a third for QT. As mentioned, our owned Rydges performed well relative to the competitive sets, and regional hotels performed particularly well. As an example, Snowy Mountains Jindabyne property grew RevPAR 37% year-on-year. Demand for QT returned strongly in the second half of the year, with weekly occupancy peaking at over 80% in early April 2021. For Atura, our Adelaide Airport Hotel has been a solid performer through the pandemic, and we are delighted to now be adding Atura management agreements to our owned portfolio.
We remain involved in hotel quarantine arrangements with our own hotels, including Rydges Rotorua, whilst QT Gold Coast was also involved for a short period in 2020. Overall, quarantine business represented around 6.2% of owned hotels' revenue for the year. In terms of managed hotels, Rydges Brisbane South Bank, Rydges Fortitude Valley, and Rydges Sydney Airport continue to participate in the quarantine program. Next slide, please. Our strategy to expand our market from the comfort and boutique segments to a broader budget through to luxury segments via existing and new brands is proving successful. We also have refreshed the Rydges brand, positioned as refreshingly local, leveraging our competitive advantages. This year, QT Auckland opened. Stunning property, already being recognized for design awards and food and beverage awards, and is the first QT management agreement in the group.
We have a further two agreements signed for QT Newcastle, which we expect to open in 2022, and QT Parramatta, which we expect to open in 2024. The QT group has grown to 12 hotels. Rydges continued to expand to 44 hotels. Three new agreements were signed in the year for Rydges Gold Coast Airport in October, Rydges Formosa Golf Resort in December, and Rydges Port Adelaide, a new property that will open in 2023. As mentioned, we are also really pleased that the Atura brand has grown under management agreements with the Thorndon Hotel in Wellington converting to an Atura during the year and a management agreement signed for a new Atura hotel to open in 2023 in Oran Park, Western Sydney. Next, please. The Independent Collection by EVT launched in February is a future growth brand.
We recognized a gap in the market and matched this with our ambition to expand and better leverage our capabilities. It's important to note that there are actually more unbranded properties in Australia than branded, and while that set of hotels is a large number, our target is a clear subset of this, which is properties with around 75 rooms or more. The Independent Collection tiers provide flexibility to ensure we have an option for all hotel experiences. Their financial model is flexible for owners, which is important at this time. From traditional management agreements to a select services model. We transferred six hotels into the portfolio during the year and added a further three hotels by June 2021 and have signed an additional four hotels to join by June 2022. The portfolio will be a minimum of 13 hotels with nearly 2,000 rooms. Next, please.
We're investing in our key assets, and one of these is QT Gold Coast. We're targeting completion by mid-2022. As part of our goal to maximize our assets, we are focused on identifying underutilized space and converting this into revenue-generating space. In completing the pool area upgrade, we've created an outdoor event space and bar. We're also enhancing our conference facilities. In addition, as highlighted in the image, we've developed a new accommodation concept leveraging vacant rooftop space, inspired by the growing trend for unique brand experiences. Next, please. Another key asset is Rydges Melbourne, and we are planning a major upgrade that will transform the hotel into our new Rydges flagship brand standard. Rydges Melbourne is located on Exhibition Street in the heart of Melbourne's theater district.
At this property, we've identified opportunities for some new rooms, enhancing some suites to capture long-stay business as an option for the future, and we'll be expanding our conference area by over 1,000 sq m to maximize this asset better using the underutilized real estate. We're going to close the hotel soon to undertake these works. At this stage, we anticipate partially reopening the hotel from September 2022 with full completion early in the 2023 calendar year. Next, please. The new JUCY Snooze Auckland property will be our flagship Snooze location. While Snooze is traditionally aimed at the backpacker market, with international borders closed, we've also unlocked new market segments, including families, sporting groups, and co-living. The property will include 37 double rooms with ensuites, 70 rooms with a shared bathroom facility, 190 pods, a communal kitchen, breakout spaces, and our Miss Lucy's food and beverage concept.
We're adopting sustainable, environmentally friendly design and a lower -cost build using modular design pods. The capital expenditure for the fit-out is approximately AUD 5 million. Now moving to Thredbo. The full-year revenue result for Thredbo was up 6.4% on prior year, despite a delayed start to the season, mandated capacity restrictions, and less than favorable snow conditions. In response to COVID-19, we initiated a new strategic direction that focused on an improved customer experience to protect revenue and grow profit. This involved reviewing and reconstructing products, experiences, pricing, and the delivery of the experience. As a result, with 48.7% less skier days, we managed to grow yield by 66.2%. Revenue from summer operations continued the growth trend with an increase in visitation of 23% compared to the 2018-2019 summer, with the 2019-2020 summer having been severely impacted by bushfires and COVID-19.
The summer performance underpinned a record-setting second -half result with a positive EBITDA from the summer months for the first time in Thredbo's history. Customer sentiment has also remained high with an improved NPS score of above 40. Any score above 30 is generally considered to be a great score. Thredbo was also named Australia's best ski resort at the World Ski Awards for the fourth consecutive year. Overall, EBITDA was AUD 29.7 million, a record year, and up 19.7% on prior year. We're very proud that Thredbo was the first Australian alpine resort to achieve gold certification from EarthCheck, recognizing Thredbo's leadership and sustainability initiatives for the alpine region. Initiatives include powering all of our major resort operations with clean, renewable energy and SNOWsat, snow depth technology installed in grooming fleet to gain efficiencies in fuel usage and snowmaking.
Merritts Gondola is powered by a highly efficient direct -drive electric motor. Installation of a closed-loop organics recycling machine. Thredbo Alpine Hotel plastic reduction plan, focusing on removing all single-use plastic products. Strong progress continues to be made with Thredbo's strategic growth plan. Merritts Gondola was completed ahead of the 2020 winter season, while planning is underway for a major upgrade of Merritts Mountain House, a new year-round F&B , events, and conferencing venue. A new mountain biking skills park was added during the year, taking total mountain biking trails to eight, and we have a new trail, Sidewinder, which will open for the 2021-2022 summer season. This will be Thredbo's easiest beginner trail. Four more mountain biking trails in the cruiser area are planned for the next two years, and we're planning to add an alpine coaster to add a further year-round attraction.
We've also started preparation for the work and for the replacement of the two-seater Snowgums chairlift with a new six-seater chairlift. Moving now to entertainment. The second -half result was significantly improved on the first half, with positive EBITDA of AUD 15.7 million, compared with an EBITDA loss in the first half. Transformation of the operating model contributed to this result. For example, we achieved a 22 percentage point improvement in profit per admission during the release of Fast & Furious 9 when compared with the previous title in that series, Hobbs & Shaw. While global cinema closures resulted in studios delaying the release of blockbuster titles in the first half in particular, more blockbuster films were released towards the end of the year due to the gradual reopening of cinemas globally and advanced COVID-19 vaccination programs in those markets.
The Australian market box office was down 46.6%; it actually outperformed many other major global markets. Mandated closures and restrictions dominated the year; we saw an immediate return of audiences when we were able to trade, with sequels performing particularly well, including Godzilla vs. Kong. EBITDA was positively impacted by active cost management of AUD 46.8 million. It's important to note that active cost management excludes the benefit of JobKeeper, which on a net basis, excluding pass-throughs, was around AUD 17 million for the year. Pleasingly, our net promoter scores showed an improved customer sentiment at a lower cost to serve. Premium concepts were strongly favored by customers, with admission contributions from premium concepts increasing by 3.9 percentage points. Key revenue metrics, including spend per head, set new records every month and were up 24.5% for the year.
The upgraded Cinema of the Future locations are further exceeding the circuit averages. We've continued to exit underperforming locations to improve our portfolio with the exit from Hindley and Close of Adelaide City and Townsville. We're getting some fantastic insights from our Cinebuzz on-demand trial, which we launched in February, and we now have close to 65,000 registered users. Next slide. The next slide illustrates the strong demand we've seen in the second half for entertainment. Wait for that slide to come up. In the top left, you can see the key blockbusters released; most were sequels, including "Godzilla vs. Kong," "Fast & Furious 9," and "A Quiet Place 2." All outperformed the previous titles in their respective series.
The bottom left chart shows that "Fast & Furious 9" also outperformed not only "Hobbs & Shaw," but also "Fast & Furious 8" in markets where our cinemas were able to remain open. The graph to the top right shows that all customer segments have returned to cinema based on our transactional analysis of the Cinebuzz membership database. The bottom right graph highlights that for the Easter weekend, as highlighted before, we outperformed the 2019 Easter weekend. It's clear that we have returned to pre-COVID demand levels when our cinemas are able to open and blockbusters are released. The next chart on the next slide is really for reference only and aims to illustrate the impact of government restrictions on our Australian cinemas for the year. You can see it's been a year of material disruption.
The ability of our teams to pivot quickly to sudden changes announced in the media by government has been second to none. Turning now to Entertainment New Zealand. The New Zealand market was relatively less severely impacted by lockdowns and restrictions but still experienced a challenging year due to cinemas being closed globally, which delayed the release of blockbusters. Despite that, we reported a positive EBITDA for the second half, underpinned by the success of our active cost management strategies, delivering AUD 11 million in savings. The net promoter score for Entertainment New Zealand also showed a strong improvement, 46 points, resulting in an improved customer experience and at a lower cost to serve, with payroll per admission reducing by more than 20% as a result of the new operating model.
As in Australia, we saw clear evidence of customers spending more, choosing premium options, and growing our merchandising spend per head around 20% on the prior year. As part of our non-core property divestment strategy, the Mount Maunganui Cinemas site was sold in June for AU$5.2 million, which compared favorably to the most recent valuation of AU$3.1 million. Entertainment Germany. Our German cinema circuit operated with restrictions for part of the first half and then was closed from November through to June. The EBITDA for the second half includes government support payments. When we were able to open, we found customers were spending more each visit, and growth was achieved in spend per head and average admission price.
Since reopening in July, initial trading results have been encouraging, notwithstanding various capacity restrictions that are across each of the German states, with July 2021 achieving the best admissions total since July 2018. Across the 16 states in Germany and within the states and within cities within the states, various COVID-19 mandated operating capacity restrictions are in place. We have implemented, where required, the German government's 3G rules, which apply in certain regions and require that customers admitted to a cinema provide evidence that they are vaccinated or have had a recent negative COVID-19 test or have recovered from COVID-19. Looking ahead, there's a strong lineup of local German films for FY 2022 to support the solid lineup of Hollywood blockbusters.
In relation to the CineStar sale review, which was prohibited by the German Federal Cartel Office in December 2020 as a result of Vue's failure to satisfy the FCO's condition for the transaction, we are continuing to review our options in relation to this matter. This next slide illustrates the impressive lineup for this financial year, and we've highlighted what we think could be the top-performing titles, including "No Time to Die" in October, "Top Gun" in November, "Spider-Man" in December, "Thor: Love and Thunder" in May, and "Jurassic World" in June. As always, the release dates are subject to change, but with the U.S. cinemas open again, we're optimistic that most dates will hold. We just need to be able to open.
The next slide highlights the depth of the local German content slated for release this year, including German superstar Til Schweiger's new film, which in English translates as "Saving the Known World," and I'm not going to attempt to say it in German. As many of you know, often our best-performing titles in the German market are local films. Next slide, please. Looking ahead, as I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, this is an incredibly difficult year to provide outlook comments, as we just don't know how long the current lockdowns will extend in Australia and New Zealand. The Australian government has suggested a framework for reopening based on vaccination targets. This is yet to be outlined in the New Zealand market. The German government has suggested that given the rate of vaccinations, that further lockdowns would be unlikely. Restrictions will continue.
We expect the German market to perform ahead of FY 2021, given the challenges of the past year. At this point in time, you'll all be very aware of the vaccination progress in Australia. In New Zealand, 23.6% are fully vaccinated, 41% at least one dose, and in Germany, 65.2% are fully vaccinated, with 74.9% having at least one dose. Just for reference, there's a seven-day rolling average of around 6,000 new cases of COVID each day. As we've said, the timing of recovery depends on the success of the vaccination programs. Like many companies, we've offered to support the rollout, and we're keen to see this progress as quickly as possible. Overall, while we can't predict when restrictions will ease, we are absolutely confident of the demand in our businesses from customers.
From a balance sheet perspective, as I said earlier, we're really well-placed with our property portfolio increasing in value, and we expect debt to remain relatively consistent with current levels, with the potential for further reduction from the proceeds of non-core property sales. In terms of our strategic priorities, they remain very clear, and these are the three priorities that have guided our business for the last four years. We want to grow revenue above market, maximize assets, and continue our business transformation. In terms of growing revenue above market, we are now agile and able to adapt to COVID-19 operating restrictions. We've enhanced our sales models and will continue to do so to outperform the market. We have a strong focus on looking at every single product, every price, every experience, identifying opportunities to innovate with brands and experiences, and recognizing trends to improve yield and unlock future growth.
Maximizing our assets, the strategic divestment of the non-core assets with the increased value of the core assets is key, and we've been very targeted with the upgrades based on where we can get the best return. Business transformation: We've made very strong progress with our cash burn. We continue to evaluate everything every day and make sure the changes that we're making today do deliver benefits into the future. We've substantially improved the efficiency across our business. Our source -to-pay progress, which is our procurement strategy, is progressing well. We've completed the first stage of our cloud migration, and our digital employee and customer experience programs are well underway. We're capturing and leveraging customer data insights better than ever before, guiding our strategic decisions so we can continue to improve customer sentiment.
We continue to evolve our corporate social responsibility actions, and we'll be talking more about our ELEVATE program focused on our people, social impact, and environment later in the year. Importantly, we've continued to strengthen our culture, focus on every opportunity to elevate our people, and ensure we're seen as a preferred employer in this highly competitive market. As I said in February, I understand how difficult it is when you're not in the business, imagining how much work is required to adjust our businesses daily in response to various government restraints announced with extremely short notice. However, as a result of the committed, experienced, and talented people we have across our business, we have materially mitigated the impact of COVID-19, and as a result, we're a new business.
I'm incredibly proud of our teams, and we're going to come out of the current pandemic far more agile and stronger than ever before. We now have a short video to highlight the key initiatives, and after this, I'm very happy to take questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from John O'Shea from Ord Minnett. Please go ahead.
Afternoon, Jane.
Hi.
Hello, Jane.
Oh, hi, John. Sorry, you dropped out for a moment then.
That's okay. Thanks very much for taking my questions. Just a couple from me. First of all, on the cost management side, you mentioned how there's AUD 158 million of active cost management, but you did say that some of that was from rent abatement. How much of that AUD 158 million do you expect to, in broad terms, retain post -pandemic in the sense that obviously that rent abatement clearly won't last forever? That's the first question. The second one is obviously the government subsidies, for which this year you've got AUD 112 million. I'm guessing next year it will be less than half of that. I just wanted to give us some sort of guide to how that's looking at the moment.
Lastly, I just wanted to confirm on the CapEx side that the Rydges Melbourne won't actually start impacting the CapEx until FY 2023, based on what you just said. Those were the three things.
Righty-ho. Okay, I'll give that a go. First of all, on the active cost management, the AUD 158 million I said about 15% rent abatement.
15%?
Of the remaining, it's too soon to tell about a specific amount. I gave an indication of the margin improvement we had film on film with "Fast & Furious 9" and "Hobbs & Shaw" of around 20%. I can't give you a specific number out of the AUD 158 million, but what I can tell you is we're seeing really good improvements on each film that we're releasing. We need to get back into a more normalized trading pattern, to fully evaluate how much we will save.
Sure. You are expecting to retain a decent portion of that?
Well, we are expecting to improve our margins.
Yep.
Yes. We certainly have aggressive targets. It really is too soon to tell.
Yep
what we can keep out of that. As I've indicated, we've also got other things growing. Look at what's happened to insurance this year. Yeah. The ambition is to definitely improve margins.
Yeah.
In terms of the government subsidies, I don't think I'm going to be too helpful here either. At this point in time, we're not eligible in Australia as a large-
Yep
business for any direct subsidies. The wage subsidy is continuing in New Zealand. The wage subsidy in New Zealand covers around 80% of wage costs when you're in a lockdown. We've got the continued German government subsidies, one of which is based on helping you to reopen. It supports you while there are restrictions in place. We can't give you a guide because it all depends on monthly performance, particularly with the German subsidies, in terms of how much we qualify for. We're uncertain as to where we're going to land with the Australian government.
Sure. In relation to this, while we're talking about New Zealand, you gave an indication of what Australia and New Zealand received from government subsidies in total. What was the split between Australia and New Zealand of those government subsidies in FY 2021?
Sorry, Greg, do you have that on hand?
Sorry, I was on mute.
Hi, Greg.
Hi, John. How are you?
Good, thank you.
Of the split between Australia and New Zealand, of the total of the AUD 112 million that's recorded in the P&L.
Yep
In the revenue, there's not a lot from New Zealand because the wage subsidy ended, but it's about AUD 2 million in New Zealand, AUD 2.3 million.
The last one was just on the Rydges Melbourne and the timeframe, so we can get a bit of a feel for CapEx this year and next year, I suppose.
Yeah. It will be calendar 2022, in terms of that, but I'd say majority 2022, 2023. Greg?
Yes, I'd agree. It depends on planning and how that plays out, John.
Sure. The FY 2023 financial year?
In all likelihood.
Yep. Would that be, just before I leave it to someone else, would that mean that in FY 2022, your CapEx requirements, obviously this year your CapEx was very much rolled down for obvious reasons? In broad terms, what can we sort of, how should we think about FY 2022? Would you be expected to be pretty similar in terms of the way you're thinking about it?
Well, I think it'll be above the past year, the 2021 year, obviously, because there were some hurdles in there.
Sure
We weren't able to do anything much.
Yes.
We do have some projects on foot now, which are not necessarily growth projects but projects to catch up on from the previous year.
Yep.
I think it'll be above that, but it'll depend on how the year plays out, particularly in these current circumstances.
That's it. Thanks very much. Thank you all. Before I go, I just wanted to thank you for the disclosure this year, both in the presentation and in the accounts. Certainly, it's been the easiest it's been since the time I've been covering the stock; well done.
Oh, thanks, John.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Sam Teeger from Citi. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi, Jane.
Hey, Sam.
Just in terms of the property portfolio, given the tremendous sale prices you've been achieving to date, what's the discussion been like internally around potentially upsizing the asset sale program above AUD 250?
At the moment, Sam, we're comfortable with the assets identified as being non-core. That's what we're focused on at this point in time. We do have a couple of others under consideration, but at this point in time, we're focused on the ones that we've mentioned.
Got it. Cool. As we think about the gap between some of the recent property sales going for 60% above the last valuation, versus now with the latest round of valuation up in the single digits.
Yes, we have had much discussion about that internally. I don't know, Matt, you're on the call. Would you like to comment on that?
I think it's a broad range of properties. You can't get away from the fact that a significant proportion of our property assets are operating hotels that have been impacted early by the last 12 or 18 months. I think there are many factors that come into it, and each property has its own story. I think in the circumstances with that increase, it's still a reasonable outcome.
Sure. I just wanted to ask about the abatements in a bit more detail. Firstly, I'm just keen to understand where discussions are at with landlords around the current lockdowns, and in the past when you have gotten abatements or if you get abatements on the current round of lockdowns, what proportion of leases have you or will you likely extend in a year?
Oh, okay. Look, it's a site-by-site negotiation. We feel like we've been very well supported by our landlords in the recent period, and those conversations are continuing. I think that's really all I can say at this point. We've highlighted kind of the percentage of the active cost management that we have in terms of rental abatements, and the conversations continue.
Yeah. Okay. Well, maybe I understand the current negotiations are ongoing, but of the ones you achieved last year, can you give us a ballpark figure in terms of how many of the tenures were extended and perhaps by how many years?
I can't give you a ballpark figure, but I would say there were some, not all.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Brian Han from Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Jane, as you look at what's happening overseas where vaccinations are more advanced, and as you talk to your hotel and cinema friends in those countries, have you sensed any changes in consumer preferences in terms of demand for branded versus unbranded hotels or budget versus premium offerings in both hotels and cinemas?
No. All we've discussed is that there is much pent-up demand. I think as soon as people are able to travel, they're traveling, and they're selecting a property based on their budget and preference. We've had no report of branded/unbranded changes as a result of COVID-19.
Right. In terms of the cinemas, budget and premium offerings, it's still the same sort of proportion.
Are still the same. In fact, what we're seeing, well, we're operating in another market, so the same increase in average admission price, preference for premium, and higher spend per head is being experienced in all markets that we've connected with and in Germany.
Thanks, Jane.
People are spending more when they come to the cinemas. Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Wei-Weng Chen from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi, Jane and team. Thanks for taking my question.
Appreciate guidance is pretty impossible to give at the moment with all this uncertainty. If we assume the worst and say we're under similar restrictions for the rest of the calendar year, can you give us an idea of what first half 2021 EBITDA might look like? I guess what I'm trying to work out is what's the worst-case scenario. Could it be worse than December 2020, or given wage subsidies no longer exist?
Look, even if I gave you guidance, I'd be wrong. Even if I gave you our worst case, I would be wrong. The reason for that is things are just changing on a daily basis. Some markets are reopening; some are closing. Subsidies from governments are evolving. It's very difficult to give you any guidance there. Greg, do you have any comments on that?
No, Jane, I agree. We've sort of said that there is government. Well, one, Germany's open. There is further government support that's forthcoming there, and we've sort of referred to that within the reports and previously. It's difficult and almost impossible to give you any guidance that we could serve with any certainty at this point in time.
Yeah.
To give you an insight on that, we've changed our forecast 3x in the last two weeks.
Yeah.
It's changing. New Zealand's open; New Zealand's closed. Queensland's open, Queensland's closed, Queensland's open. It's just too difficult to give you anything that would be sensible, probably beyond the next seven days.
Yeah. Okay. All right. Then, I guess just on the German damage compensation program. You received EUR 27.5 million to date. Are you expecting more? Roughly what's the quantum that you're thinking about?
Yes, we are expecting more. The quantum is yet to be validated. As soon as we do know, and if required, we will let you know. All we can say at this point is we are expecting more.
Okay. Are you able to say, relative to the EUR 27.5 million, what life could be up or down on that or sort of on a similar level?
I would say less. Greg?
Yeah. I would say less, but it's in a similar kind of range. You've got to remember that, and we've made reference to it in the reports, that the amounts that we received to date are for the November and December period, which are obviously very buoyant periods when we're open. Then obviously, there'll be hopefully support for the closure period from January to June. Clearly not as buoyant as the November and December compensation plan. Yeah, we believe it'll be reasonably in that range, but less than the EUR 27 and a half million, in all likelihood.
Yeah. Okay, thanks. Just last one on box office. Can you maybe speak to, I guess, what you're seeing for movies that have had simultaneous releases, whether it be your experience or sort of the global experience? How are Event thinking about film costs going forward? Should your theatrical windows shrink further?
Okay. What we're seeing is when a blockbuster releases, we are, as I highlighted in the presentation, getting strong demand for that blockbuster. Where we're open, often they're exceeding the prior film in that sequence. In terms of reduced windows, we are anticipating our windows have shortened, but that doesn't impact the cost of the film.
Okay. All right. Thanks. That's all from me.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from April Lowis from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hi, Jane. Just two questions on the property portfolio for me. The first one is, what are the price expectations for Rydges North Sydney? The second one is on the George Street DAs. Why was the initial DA with the office knocked back? How the office differs now compared to the original plan?
Okay, on the first one, April, I'm going to say as much as possible because that property is heading to market, so we wouldn't want to put a price limit on that. As soon as we have sold that, we'll update you. In terms of the DA, it was just preferred to do it that way because there are different complications with heritage and getting the first DA for the podium level sorted out, which we managed to do, and then it has just made more logical sense to follow that up with the office component following that. Matt, did you want to add anything more to that?
No, not really, other than that the proposed tower form and scale is consistent with what we've always envisaged.
Yeah.
We've been working closely with council throughout the last year to get to a position which we think makes sense.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Nick McGarrigle from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
I just had a quick follow-up question on the German subsidy. I think you've applied for that. Is it a high likelihood that it gets approved at that amount that you've acquired, that you've requested? Is that highly likely? Then I guess the second question on Germany, just to follow up, would be around will you look to proceed with the sale of the five cinemas that were in question by the FCO in order to have it be a more smooth process, potentially, if there was another bidder?
Hi, Nick. In terms of the German subsidies, look, we've applied it as per the criteria for the application, and right now it is actually with KPMG to be validated. We're reasonably confident is what I would say. It still requires auditing. In terms of the divestments of those locations, some of those locations were in fact Vue locations, and some of them were ours. We divested one during that process, but we've got no further that we need to divest at this point.
Right. Okay. That's great context. Thanks for that. Just in terms of the progress on that initial lodgement, that's not reflected at all in the FY 2021 results, is that correct?
That's correct.
Great. Thanks. Then just the last one around the, it looks like the building at 525 George Street has had a bit of an amendment to the mix between apartments and resi. Is that just fine-tuning versus that original DA, just in terms of where you see the best economic benefit?
Correct. Yeah.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Nick, can I just clarify too, the German support, we've received the amounts for the applications we've lodged. The amounts were received post 30th of June, but have hit our bank accounts. As Jane referenced, the other support applications for the January to June period have yet to be lodged.
Yes.
All right. Thanks again.