Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the EVT Limited half-year results. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Miss Jane Hastings, CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Hi everyone. Before we get started, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land I'm speaking to you from this afternoon, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I'd like to pay my respects to elders past and present, and I'd like to acknowledge any and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people joining us today. Thanks for joining the call, everyone. Revenue for the first half was AUD 649.1 million, marginally down 1.5% on prior year. The Hotels Division first half revenue was up 2% on prior year to AUD 207.1 million. The Entertainment Group revenue of AUD 371.6 million was down 3.7%, with the first half film lineup impacted by film supply disruption following the 2023 Hollywood strikes. Thredbo was impacted by adverse winter weather, with conditions in 2024 even worse than 2023.
Revenue was AUD 61.9 million, down 1.9%, with the resort closing four weeks earlier than planned. However, normalized EBITDA for the first half was AUD 99.6 million, up 3.7% on the prior year. This result was driven by a record first half EBITDA for the Hotels Division, up 10.9% to AUD 58.2 million, with better than fair market share and good margin improvement. The Entertainment Group EBITDA was AUD 31.4 million, down 14.9%, with good cost control measures in place given less blockbuster films, while Thredbo delivered EBITDA of AUD 19.9 million, down 10%, a good result in the context of extremely challenging weather conditions. As part of our asset maximization strategy, we announced in October that we were reviewing our strategic options for 525 George Street in Sydney to determine the best outcome to recognize the value created during the planning process.
Given the achievement of significant milestones, we were able to complete this review sooner, and today we've announced our plans to pursue the divestment of the 525 George Street development site, subject to market conditions. The sale process is expected to take around 12 months to complete. We're also continuing to explore options to accelerate our fewer-better cinema strategy. EVT net debt of AUD 303.4 million remains below pre-COVID net debt levels, and the balance sheet remains strong, and we are well positioned for future growth. The board has declared a fully franked interim dividend of AUD 0.16 per share, which will be paid in March. I'll comment further on the outlook at the end of the presentation, but in summary, we expect the 2025 full year EBITDA growth on prior year, subject to film performance, weather, and just general market conditions.
As I mentioned, normalized EBITDA was up 3.7%, driven by the growth of the Hotels Division. Unallocated expenses were down AUD 4.5 million to AUD 9.7 million, including the benefit of a reduction in employee incentive payments. Our unallocated expenses remain below the first half of the pre-COVID FY19 year, while continuing to enhance our capabilities. Normalized NPAT was AUD 31.5 million, up AUD 2.4 million or 8.3%, and reported NPAT was AUD 31.1 million, up AUD 4 million or 14.9%. Turning now to the Entertainment Division, as expected, the global cinema market experienced the impact of the 2023 Hollywood strikes, with fewer blockbuster films released, resulting in periods of record low admissions. As a result, admissions for the group were down 8.3% on the prior year. Our strategy led to record results in average admission price and merchandising spend per head, which I'll illustrate a little more on the next few slides.
These strategies mitigated the revenue impact of reduced admissions, with revenue down only 3.7%. While variable costs were well controlled and periods of record low admissions given no blockbusters, our fixed cost base means that EBITDA was down 14.9%. In Australia, admissions decreased by 6.6%, but revenue declined by only 1.1%, driven by growth in AAP and spend per head, which partially offset the reduced admissions. EBITDA fell by 3.7%. In New Zealand, the results were comparatively weaker than Australia due to key titles like Deadpool & Wolverine receiving an R16 rating, which significantly reduced their potential audience. Consequently, admissions were down 14.5%, revenue fell by 10.5%, and EBITDA was a loss of AUD 800,000. In Germany, one of the key Hollywood blockbusters of the first half was Wicked.
Unfortunately, German audiences are not familiar with the stage show, and the film's later release led to its underperformance compared to other global markets. In December, we achieved exceptional results, which I'll highlight further, and the results really demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategies and indicate we can expect stronger outcomes when film supply normalizes. As examples for Entertainment Australia and New Zealand, we achieved a record December result with admissions up around 25% and EBITDA up around 120% on the prior year December. Our previous record December was in 2015 with Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 released. While this December, we had 31% fewer admissions, we generated 5.1% more EBITDA than 2015. We also achieved the Australian result with fewer locations than we had pre-COVID, demonstrating the success of our fewer-better cinema strategy.
The results also demonstrate that when film supply normalizes, the New Zealand market will be profitable. It's also important to highlight that these results were achieved despite the dominance of family titles, which generally achieve lower yields, and we were missing a Christmas period action blockbuster film release. We would expect a broader blockbuster film lineup to achieve even better results in the future. As I mentioned earlier, our fewer-better strategy continues to drive record results in average admission price and spend per head across all of our markets. Even in a more challenging New Zealand economic environment, we continue to hold and marginally grow yield. It's interesting to note that while consumer discretionary spend has been challenged in each of our markets, our results demonstrate that a visit to the cinema is not impacted.
What is clear is that the significant yield growth we've achieved will deliver stronger results when we have a consistent lineup of blockbuster film releases. Turning now to property and development, we have a strong property portfolio valued at around AUD 2.3 billion. This reflects a 15% increase since 2019, despite the divestment of non-core properties that generated over AUD 280 million in proceeds. The valuation of some of our key properties will be updated at 30 June 2025, and we'll update the portfolio value at year-end. Our property strategy is to own hotel properties in key city locations that will support the asset-like growth of our hotel portfolio in Australia, New Zealand, and internationally. We have announced today that our intention to pursue the divestment of the development site at 525 George Street in Sydney, and I'll cover this more on the next slide.
We continue to divest non-core properties to recycle capital into hotel growth initiatives. The sale of Rydges Hobart for around AUD 10 million was completed in the first half, and we're preparing to go to market for the sale of Rydges Geelong, Atura Albury, and our investment property located at 418 Adelaide Street in Brisbane. We're targeting total proceeds from non-core property sales of around AUD 40 million. We continue to explore options to leverage our property portfolio in ways that will accelerate the growth of our Hotels Division and accelerate our fewer-better cinema strategy.
To support growth in earnings from our owned hotel portfolio, we're currently working on a few hotel priority hotel upgrade projects, a seismic upgrade and refurbishment of Rydges Queenstown, and we will be rebranding that entire property to QT, with the east wing work in progress and the west wing and central building works at the planning stage. We're planning for an upgrade of QT Canberra also at the planning stage, and we've secured planning approvals for proposed new Lylos in Fremantle and on the underutilized land at QT Gold Coast. We're really delighted that Lylo Auckland was recognized at the Global Youth Travel Awards as the best hostel, which is credit to the strength of the brand at such an early stage and the evidence that we've created an experience that is meeting the needs of the next generation of travelers.
You're all aware of our planned major developments at 525 George Street and 458-472 George Street. It's important to note that the 458-472 George Street development property forms part of the broader George & Market Street precinct, which includes QT Sydney, Gowings Retail, which is currently occupied by Mecca, and the State Theatre, all of which are really good contributors to earnings. Our head office building also forms part of this precinct, 525 George Street and the George & Market Street precinct collectively represent about 30% of our property value. While most of the George & Market Street precinct delivers good returns, the development sites have not meaningfully contributed to earnings. Four years ago, we developed an asset maximization program to create or unlock the value of the development properties. In short, we recognized these properties were not delivering the returns they could be, and we've been doing something about it.
Today, we've announced our intention, subject to market conditions, to pursue the divestment of 525 George Street and realize the value generated from our four-year asset maximization plan. This decision follows the achievement of significant planning milestones for the proposed development of the site, including securing the approval of around 100 new apartments as part of a mixed-use retail cinema, hotel, and residential development. We will appoint a sales agent to assist with the sale, and the process is expected to take around 12 months to complete. In arriving at this decision, we explored various strategic options and considered that a sale would best support our strategic priority to grow earnings from our Hotel Division, freeing up capital for expansion, while also allowing for a potential special dividend once the sale process has been completed.
With that decision made, we're really focused on reviewing strategic options for the George and Market Street precinct, including 458–472 George Street. We previously secured DA approval for the podium component of this development, which includes an extension of the QT Hotel Sydney, including new guest rooms, conference space, and a rooftop bar. The property was purchased for AUD 116 million in 2017, and while we've added value through the planning approvals process, it is not currently making any significant contribution to the group's earnings. We recognize that George and Market Street precinct is a really high-valued prime Sydney CBD property holding. We expect to provide an update on our plans for 458–472 George Street and the broader George and Market Street precinct later in financial year 2026. In summary, our focus is on unlocking the value of these properties to drive enhanced returns from our portfolio overall.
Turning now to Thredbo, as I've mentioned, Thredbo's revenue is only marginally down despite the worst winter conditions for around 20 years. EBITDA was down 10%, with increased snowmaking and grooming costs impacting on margin. We continue to see strong yield results from our new business model, with winter ticket yields around 80% above pre-COVID levels. Adverse weather conditions affected the opening weekends of the summer season and resulted in an 18.5% decrease in mountain biking visitation in November and December. Visitation increased to more normal levels over the Christmas period, and tourist visitation has been strong, with tourist rides up 7%. Despite recent challenges, Thredbo is recognized for the eighth year in a row as Australia's best ski resort, which is an incredible achievement for the Thredbo team. Turning now to the Hotels Division, the Hotels Division has delivered a record first half revenue, EBITDA, and profit result.
Overall, for our owned hotels, occupancy was up 3.4 points to 79.6%, which is approaching pre-COVID occupancy levels. While average room rates have remained relatively flat, growth in occupancy is driving a record RevPAR result, up 3.9% to 179. All our brands are continuing to deliver more than their fair market share. These results have been achieved despite some market challenges. The New Zealand market continues to underperform, with the exception of Queenstown, which has been a standout. We've achieved strong growth in food and beverage revenue and overall margin growth, driven by a continuing focus on our business transformation strategies. We welcome three new managed hotels to the portfolio in the first half: Rydges Ringwood in Victoria, the Alex Hotel in Perth, and the Sherwood Queenstown. We also opened QT Singapore in September to rave reviews and really great customer feedback.
In terms of our key hotel brands, we're able to hold rates around record levels, with occupancy approaching pre-COVID levels driven by RevPAR growth. Each of our brands achieved record RevPAR results. Rydges RevPAR was up 27.4% on pre-COVID levels and up 7.9% on prior year. QT RevPAR was up 28% on pre-COVID levels and up 2.9% on prior year. And Atura RevPAR was up 45.1% on pre-COVID levels and up 0.7% on prior year. And as I've said, all brands are performing ahead of market. As you know, our hotel strategy has evolved over the past few years to enable expansion. We have a hotel solution that meets the needs of the entire market, from premium to budget experiences, from leveraging one of our owned brands or maintaining or creating an independent brand and leveraging our capabilities.
Our brands include QT Hotels, Rydges, Atura, and Lylo, our game-changing lifestyle budget accommodation experience with locations now in Auckland, Christchurch, Queenstown, Brisbane, and Fremantle and Gold Coast in the pipeline. Our plan for Lylo is to establish our credentials in Australia and New Zealand and then explore offshore opportunities in the future. The Independent Collection by EVT enables owners to retain or choose another brand, and then they leverage our management expertise. We've grown the EVT Hotels and Resorts network to 85 hotels, with more in the pipeline. With our property strategy of owning hotels in key city locations, we thought it was important to illustrate the range of structures that we can leverage for growth in the division. We'll explore JV options or partnership structures to take equity positions in key managed hotels to secure long tenure management agreements, as we have for the Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle.
We have a competitive advantage when pitching for hotel management agreements as an owner and operator of hotels when our competitors are almost exclusively asset-light, as we can also demonstrate how to grow asset value over time. We can offer white-label hotel management services to owners that may prefer retaining or an alternative brand. With our established brands in Australia and New Zealand, we can also look to grow our brand licensing revenue. Looking now at the upgrades in the pipeline, completed in the first half were Rydges North Sydney, Rydges Australia Square, Rydges Port Macquarie, and the Pensione in Perth, while an extension of Rydges Kalgoorlie is underway. In our own portfolio, as I mentioned earlier, a major upgrade and conversion to QT is in progress at Rydges Queenstown, and we're also introducing a new cozy room concept and currently underutilized conference space at Atura Adelaide Airport.
We have a pipeline of new hotels joining the group in the future years, including The Ivory Lane Hotel in Brisbane later this calendar year, Atura Oran Park in southwest Sydney expected to open in financial year 27, QT Parramatta also financial year 27, Rydges Resort Wailoaloa Beach in Fiji, which is in the planning stage, and Rydges Tauranga in New Zealand expected to open in financial year 27 or 27-28 also. Many of you will be very familiar with our strategy. Our three strategic goals that guide the group are to grow revenue above market, maximize assets, and business transformation. You can see from the half-year results that we've been able to grow revenue above market through smarter pricing, launching new experiences, improving customer satisfaction, and enhancing our sales programs.
We continue to maximize our assets with upgrades of core hotel assets, divestment of non-core properties, the expansion of our hotel network, and the realization of value from our key development sites. And we're going to continue to implement business transformation initiatives that improve insights and efficiency and assist in offsetting cost increases while also delivering material improvements in our culture, our community initiatives, and environment initiatives. Now looking ahead to the second half, in entertainment, we're expecting modest growth on the second half of the prior year, subject to film performance and date changes. Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic 3 were released in December and have performed well into January, while Paddington in Peru has also resonated with family audiences since it released on New Year's Day. The Sonic and Paddington sequels have exceeded the performance of the previous titles in those series.
Captain America: Brave New World and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy opened in line with our expectations, and we're hoping to see these titles reach the AUD 15 million mark at the Australian box office. Disney's new Snow White film is opening next month before the eagerly awaited video game adaptation of Minecraft in April. Looking ahead to May, we have Mission: Impossible to look forward to, Marvel's Thunderbolts, before releasing the live-action How to Train Your Dragon in June. While we're optimistic about the second half film lineup, it's important to note that June 24 included the release of Despicable Me 4 and Inside Out 2, both of which well outperformed expectations. Looking further ahead, I can say we're really excited about the financial year 26 lineup, which is still taking shape but includes some potentially big blockbuster hits.
These include a solid July lineup including Formula 1 with Brad Pitt, a Jurassic World sequel, James Gunn's Superman reboot, and at the end of the month, the release of Marvel's Fantastic Four: First Steps. The eagerly awaited Michael Jackson film is slated for release in October. Wicked: For Good and Zootopia 2 are coming in November before we end the calendar year with Avatar: Fire and Ash. The second half lineup for financial year 26 is still coming together, but also includes a sequel to the 2023 breakout hit Super Mario Bros., a new Avengers title, a new Star Wars title, Toy Story 5, and Minions 3. Having seen what our fewer-better cinema can do in December, I can't tell you how excited we are to see a lineup and to see how much we can improve on the results we're delivering.
In hotels, we're cycling the contribution of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, which underpins the result for February 24. We will also see some impact from partial closure at Rydges Queenstown for upgrade works. With underlying growth in occupancy, we expect to be able to offset these headwinds and deliver a result broadly in line with the prior second half. We expect Thredbo's summer result to be broadly in line with the prior comparable period, and the June 2025 winter result will depend on weather conditions. Our teams have done an incredible job transforming the way we do business to offset inflationary pressures and still invest in areas for growth, and we're seeing some great results, and we're going to continue to do so. Thanks for listening. I'll now 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 Ed Woodgate with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Hi team. Thanks very much for taking the question, and congratulations on a great result. Just initially, it'd be helpful for you to talk about entertainment. So you called out Australia growing 5% in December despite admissions being 30% lower on the PCP. Can you just talk to what drove that? Was it yield, or did you manage costs in some particular way? Just a color would be helpful.
Yeah, I think so. I've referred to the fact that we were circa 5% higher in EBITDA despite 30% fewer admissions. They've been our revenue strategies. So it's part of our premiumization strategy. It's our merchandising strategies. It's our operating strategy, and it's also our fewer better strategy, making sure that we're investing in the right sites that can deliver the highest returns.
Okay. And then New Zealand, you called out Wolverine impacted R16 restrictions. If you think about, if you look at the other titles and compare them to Australia, did they perform similarly in New Zealand?
Yes. It was also Joker that got an R16 rating in New Zealand as well, but the other titles performed as they should do.
Okay, fantastic. And then the first quarter trading update for entertainment was negative 70% year on year, roughly. Was the spread in EBITDA performance by region similar to what we've seen at the first half result, or has there been any particular improvement in region since then, maybe Germany?
Sorry, I missed the first part of your question. The volume was quite [uncertain]. Can you repeat that?
Yeah, just that the first quarter update, you called out group entertainment EBITDA being down 70-odd%.
Oh, yeah.
And I'm just wondering how it's gone since then by region, if any particular region was improved or if the splits in performance are pretty similar. So was New Zealand the key drag in Q1? Has Germany improved in Q2?
Oh, no, the key drag was across the board in Q1 because we were cycling the Barbie Oppenheimer impact the year prior. So the comparative period was very strong. But they're all performing pretty much in line outside of that callout, which is marginal on New Zealand with the R16 titles.
Okay, sure. And then on hotels, how did you improve the margins? Is it the mix shift to managed hotels, or is it your cost decline there year on year? Is that just reflecting the sale of Rydges Hobart, or are there any other cost-down initiatives in that segment?
Yeah, no, it's primarily. We like to call them business transformation initiatives. So it is just refining operating models, greater efficiency in housekeeping, just working right through the business and looking for ways to do things in a more efficient way.
Okay, and then maybe just one more, and I'll jump back in the queue. So you called out some upgrades, for example, to QT Queenstown. Any of these projects, if you look at the net impact compared to the PCP, where you would have had a few upgrades in place, is there going to be any impact to EBITDA from upgrading these hotels?
Sorry, I think the only impact may be the timing of the Queenstown project. So a downside impact, if we choose to, we're just evaluating the program to see if we can accelerate it because we really like the look of the returns we're going to get as soon as we can open those rooms. So there may be a downside impact from Queenstown.
Are you able to call out what type of impact, like how material that impact might be, just so we don't get out one wrong?
Yeah, sure, sure, sure. Probably around, it's 1-2 million.
Okay, and that's just for the second half of 2025.
Yes.
Is that right?
Yes.
Okay. All right, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Your next question comes from John O'Shea with Ord Minnett. Please go ahead.
Hi, Jane. Can you hear me okay?
Yes, I can.
Yeah, thanks very much, and good job in the first half. So two questions from me and both relating to the same thing. But firstly, can you clarify what exactly are you selling as part of George Street? And secondly, are you able to share with us the book value and the fair value that you have for those particular assets?
So I can definitely answer your first question, John, but we're not going to be answering the second question because, as you can imagine, we don't want any values out in the market because we just want to get the best and most competitive price for that asset. But the.
I just thought you might have been able to share that given the book value is already known.
Yeah, no, we would just like to wait and see what offers we get on the property rather than talk about values. But we're selling the, that's the entire 525 property. So that's where the George Street Cinemas is currently located.
Yeah. So everything associated with that?
Yes.
No exclusion.
Sorry, we couldn't hear you then.
There's no exclusions.
No exclusions.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Russell Gill with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. A couple of questions. Maybe just a follow-on question and trying to get an answer from you asking it a different way. If you're thinking about capital in the business and potential, I guess, special dividends that may be applied, is a good guide looking at the available franking credits in the business ex your current yield around dividend, which could potentially lead to a special dividend? Is that another way of thinking about it?
Probably not.
Okay.
Yeah, but it's just an area that we're not, as you can imagine, and as you'd want to hear, we want to have the most competitive process around that property. So there's going to be no responses on values or expectations.
Okay. And in terms of the balance sheet of the business going forward, in terms of capital that you want to deploy into other assets, your balance sheet's better to say than what it was, I guess, pre-COVID. Where could the balance sheet go in terms of the gearing post this asset sale?
Also not announcing that because it would give an indication of the value of the asset sale. So obviously, it would trend in a positive manner and give us plenty of room to invest for growth, which is what we're after.
Great. Maybe flipping to entertainment and just the fewer-better cinema strategy. Just trying to get a better understanding of, I guess, leverage to a big recovery in blockbusters, just in terms of seat availability and ability to push admissions through. Has this, I guess, process, I guess, decreased your absolute leverage to admissions going forward, or how should we think about admissions across the business in 2026 when there could be a huge amount of titles coming through?
Yeah, no. Firstly, the fewer-better has not diminished our ability to maximize a blockbuster film. We have enough seats, and obviously, we have different days and times of the week. And in fact, demand is a good driver of our yield strategies. So that works. So there's no impact from the fewer-better strategy looking ahead with blockbusters coming up. But in terms of forecasting what those blockbusters will do, I mean, we've given you a guide that we'd love them all to do over AUD 15 million, but that range could be AUD 15 million to AUD 100 million. So it all depends on how good those films are when they're released. But you can always use what the prior film is to get a sense of where that might end up.
Just a follow-up to that, Jane. If you're thinking about how the film industry or the cinema exhibition market is looking at the moment, there's a big focus on blockbusters, and obviously, they're a massive variable on admissions, as you'd indicated before. Are you seeing anything structural around that, the industry around, I guess, non-blockbuster movies and attendance levels as they come through? Is it sort of a big drop-off relative to pre-COVID, or the view is that this is just a pure timing issue around the volume of movies coming through?
No change to where we were in 2019, I think, is the easiest way to answer that. The strikes have just starved us of blockbusters, which are a very important part of the mix. The mid-range films started to thin out a long time ago. So that's not a new adjustment. That was something that was there. And we have a lot more smaller films being made and released in cinemas. And I think a good example of where new content comes from is the Chinese blockbuster Ne Zha 2, which is released. It's going to potentially be the biggest film of the year globally. I think it's at about 1.6 billion, if not more at this point in time. We're also screening Ne Zha 2 in certain locations in Australia and New Zealand.
That film, I think it's taken about AUD 4.5 million, AUD 4 million, AUD 5 million at the Australian box office to date. Content is also coming in terms of the international content as well. There's a different mix coming from different places.
All right, thanks, Jane.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Max Moser-Finch with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi team. Thanks for answering my questions. Appreciate the slide around the cinema profitability within December. I'm just looking for some more color on the sensitivities here. Like 1H25 admits were down 39% below 1H19, with an EBITDA of sort of 43% below 1H19 compared to December, whereas 24% below, with an EBITDA of 31% above. Is this just outside the operating leverages here? And sort of what percentage of pre-COVID admits do you see generating equivalent pre-COVID EBITDA?
Oh, yeah, we've kind of referred to. It's actually on the slide where we've said we've done 5% higher EBITDA on 30% fewer admissions. So that kind of gives you a guide towards the level of admissions that we would anticipate to get a break-even result.
Okay, thanks for that. And then also, obviously, hotel data is looking very strong into January and February. ADR's higher, RevPAR up 8% in January. New Zealand weakness sort of unwinding. Just curious about the derivation of the hotel segment being in line with PCP and how you perceive the quantum of the Taylor Swift headwind you're about to be cycling.
I think we've already given an indication of the quantum.
Yeah, around two.
Yeah, I think we've already indicated maybe a little earlier it was around 2 million EBITDA. Was that the question? The quantum of the Taylor Swift impact?
Oh, I thought the 2 million related to the Queenstown. That does, okay.
Yes.
Yep, thanks for that.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Brian Han with Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Jane, in terms of capital management, if 525 George Street is sold, how do you see the merits of a special dividend that you mentioned versus a buyback or a capital return?
I guess all options are looked at at the point when you have the success of a sale. I think that's the easiest way to answer that question. And all options will be looked at by the board at that point in time.
Right. I only ask because you specifically mentioned special dividend at the exclusion of all the others.
Yeah, I think we've said potential special dividend.
Right, okay. Jane, do you remember when was the last time box office film slate was "normal"? Because I'm not sure what that means anymore.
I think box office slate has always been variable because you're always dependent on the number of blockbusters released in a year. So our version of normal is kind of getting back to a phase where we're getting blockbuster releases through the June, July, August period, blockbuster releases through the Christmas period, so November, December, January. It's probably more the pattern and volume of blockbusters released in those periods.
Right, right, right. So you mentioned AUD 15 million box office taking. Is that the benchmark now to determine whether a blockbuster is good or bad for EVT?
That is our benchmark. But as I've said, it could be 15-100 or above 100 million. But there is no way you can now anticipate a film to come out and take 15, and it could do 50. And the people who are always surprised with those results are the people who made the films. So I guess there's just a large variation, and we've just set 15 as the benchmark as a result from that point.
Okay. Thanks, Jane.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Ed Woodgate with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Hi, Jane team. Thanks for taking follow-up. Just on 525 George Street, appreciate we're probably not going to get any details out of you regarding valuation or anything. But there's not too much to ask. The sale, is that likely to include a lease back with the cinema operations?
Potentially. It may or may not. The most important point here is to get the best return on that development, and there are options within that on the hotel and cinema.
Sure. And then summer Thredbo, so you've called out poor weather and key dates. It sounds like the PCP was impacted by similar issues. Can you just provide some color on the nature and the quantum of impact and how we should think about more normalized trading in summer?
Oh, normalized trading in summer. So basically, November, December, it was largely the winds, basically, which impacted that result. And we've said that the mountain biking visitation November and December was down 18.5%. Then over the Christmas period, we saw growth on prior year because we had great conditions. So it's a pretty tough one to give you a normalized view because it all depends. Basically, if the conditions are similar, we're getting growth. If we don't have similar conditions, we're not.
Yeah, got it. Okay, thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you. Your next question is from Charlie Kingston, who is a private investor. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Thank you. Charles Kingston from K Capital. Well done, Jane. Nice result. Given the market clearly likes it, so good to see. They're happy about some of the capital likely to come back. But I suppose asking it again in a slightly different way, but I'm just trying to understand, given the AUD 2.3 billion of property assets that EVT owns, and you've said that 458 to 472 isn't contributing to earnings. 525, I'm guessing, isn't much at all at the moment. But I'm just trying to understand how much of that property book, the AUD 2.3 billion, do you think is currently contributing to earnings, operating hotels, etc.? I'm just trying to understand sort of what the return on those assets are at the moment.
Because if we look at the hotels, EBITDA of 52 odd for the half, I'm not sure the seasonal split, but if we just say it's 100 for the full year, I'm just trying to work out what the actual asset base is that's delivering that sort of earnings to try and understand what the return that asset base is delivering. And then just on that, the comment that you say 7% of non-core assets to be divested, is that in addition to the 525, or is that separate, please? Thanks.
In addition.
In addition, okay. So another AUD 160-odd million on that market value.
As I've said, 458-472 is the development property, and it forms part of the George Street and Market Street precinct. In the George and Market Street precinct, the assets which are delivering a good return are QT Sydney, Gowings Retail, State Theatre, and they obviously contribute to earnings. Our head office building is also part of that precinct, and then we have 525. Collectively, they represent about 30% of our property value. We have a portion that is contributing, and then we have a portion that is not, which is why we've been working on these plans to unlock that value.
Okay, so if we say, yeah, I think per the last market report or value of the properties, it was around AUD 663 million for the Sydney CBD. So call it AUD 700 million. Am I right in deducting that from the AUD 2.3 billion and then saying that the hotel earnings and using that sort of asset figure, say AUD 1.4 billion as the asset base? If you were to sell all these assets, can we assume that the earnings of the current business won't change? Is that fair?
If you sold.
Notwithstanding any adjustments.
We're not making any announcement to sell all of the assets. We've made an announcement to sell 525, and we see minimal impact on the business.
So if you are successful and you sell the other 7% of non-core assets, can I assume that the business going forward, the earnings you've just produced, will be similar? Is that fair?
If you've tracked the properties we've sold today, we've more than offset the earnings and hotels through our expansion strategies. So the strategy is not to sell things and reduce our earnings and go backwards. It's about a range of strategies to offset that, and we've more than done that. So I think you can take that as a gauge.
Thank you. And then just quickly on the potential for recycling some of those proceeds, where are we at in the premiumisation of the existing book? Is there much more spend to go? And just always looking at the cash flow statement, but just a few items in the investing line, $34 million for PP&E. There's $10 million for payments for an investment. Can you just run me through what you think is the sort of sustaining CapEx for the half of growth? And yeah, where are we at on that journey of premiumisation, please?
We think around 140-160, which is what we've indicated in the past. The projects that we need to achieve, we feel we can achieve within that.
Yeah, and specific to the half, how much was of that? Call it AUD 45 million or AUD 50 million total CapEx. How much would be maintenance? And what was that payment for investment, please? AUD 10 million.
So the payment for investment was just an equity interest in a hotel fund that we operate the hotel in Perth. So that was the AUD 9.8 million. And then the AUD 38 million, look, I think probably most of that was routine CapEx, to be honest. There were some upgrades at certain cinema sites, but if I don't have the number in front of me, but I think probably sort of 60%-70% was just routine CapEx for the half year. There's nothing significant in there at all.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Your next question is from Ed Woodgate with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Sorry, just one further follow-up. My questions were in relation to what Charlie was asking about CapEx, but you've answered that. But just with the 140, 160, can you just clarify through the cycle, how much maintenance CapEx would you envisage spending? And I guess it should be interesting to understand the growth versus maintenance CapEx.
It varies based on each year and what we need to achieve. Obviously, next year, it's going to be primarily allocated into the hotel upgrade program, which is growth. It just varies year by year, and that's why we typically don't give a breakdown between the stay-in-business and growth CapEx.
Okay. Maybe we'll chat offline about that. Thank you. Great result, guys. Think great result, okay.
Thank you. There are no further.