Thank you for standing by, and welcome to The Star Entertainment Group Limited half-year results conference call. 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 Mr. Matt Bekier, Managing Director and CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Andrew, and welcome everybody to The Star First Half 2022 Results Presentation. I'm joined here by Harry Theodore, our CFO, and Mark Wilson, who leads our investor relations team. We gave guidance last week, so I'm sure we can shorten the traditional reveal ceremony to confirm that the final results are in line with the guidance given. That is revenues of AUD 580 million for the half, EBITDA of AUD 31 million, and a statutory net loss of AUD 74 million. In our operating context, we think this was a reasonable result. Let me call out four key observations about this. First of all, the result was achieved in exceptionally difficult operating conditions. We've had ever-changing rules, rapid disruptions to demand that led to an inability to flex staff expenses, and we operated in a world of chronic labor shortage.
At the peak of Omicron, just to illustrate, we had about 40% of our staff out with COVID or not allowed to join us because of close contact rules. You can imagine what disruption that brings to the businesses, opening schedules, overtime, charges for those who are able to work, extra sick leave pay, contractors that we had to bring in, and so on. Yet, the team performed well in terms of revenues, customer service, and compliance. In my eyes, that's a huge credit to them. Secondly, what I want you to take out of the results is that our customer base continues to show great loyalty and resilience with a rapid return of traditional consumption patterns whenever COVID disruptions pass.
You see that when you look at the revenue performance in Sydney, where after having been shut for 103 days of the year, revenue jumped up by 28% for the residual 81 days. In Queensland, we were broadly flat in the first half on a very strong PCP. This year, we saw a massive contraction of revenue on the back of Omicron. Let me just illustrate that to you a little bit. Revenue for the group in January was down over 20% to the PCP by the middle of the month, only to recover most of that over the following two weeks to finish the month almost flat to the prior period. Now, halfway through February, group revenue year-to-date is up 7% for the first half. Sydney is particularly strong, as is hospitality in revenue across the group.
This speaks volumes about our customers' willingness to return as the health situation normalizes. Every day that passes, our guests' confidence increases that they are safe to go out, that they're able to go on holidays and return, that they can go and see the shows that they've paid for and so on. This fills us with real optimism for the remainder of the year and a return to a more normal environment. Third point I'd like to make is that we've always been focused on our cost base. This half, we have experienced higher costs. Some of them are transitional and COVID-related and not necessarily obvious. I referenced some of the cost items earlier, but for example, due to the peculiarities of the law in New South Wales, we're currently dealing with over 1,000 workers' comp claims from COVID.
Now, these expenses will disappear over time, but other costs will stay with us, and we'll need to manage them as we have in the past, through efficiencies in pricing. Those cost categories in particular include insurance salaries and some of the food categories. We understand where the costs are, and we think that they are well controlled, except for those externalities. The investments we've made over the last 12 months in supporting our staff through the pandemic through top-up payments and other financial means have been expensive, but they are now paying back because we've retained most of our staff. Unlike many other operators, we are able to service the bulk of the demand, particularly in hospitality.
Finally, the last point I just wanna make about the result is that in the half, we've also completed another expansionary milestone with the opening of the Dorsett Hotel and the substantive conclusion of the apartment tower. Trading and customer feedback have been strong. Forward bookings look promising both for the hotel as well as the apartments that we manage in the rental pool. As we go into the remainder of this half with good momentum, our focus will be on the following four areas. First of all, we will work our way through the Bell Review, the AUSTRAC enforcement investigation, and other regulatory inquiries that are underway. A very significant amount of work and expense has already gone into this.
We will continue to cooperate fully and transparently with these inquiries, and we will spare no effort to bring them to a conclusion. Secondly, we will further advance our capital projects, especially the developments in Brisbane, and further fit our properties into real integrated resorts with an expanded hospitality offering. Third, we will seek to progress the monetization of non-core assets, namely in Sydney. Lastly, we look to maintain the trading momentum, convert revenue into earnings, and set us up for a more normal FY 2023. I expect that our margins will remain under pressure in the second half, but our focus right now is to get our customers back, serve them well, and serve them safely. I will now hand over to Harry to take you through a bit more of the details in the financials before going back to Q&A.
Thanks, Matt. I'll briefly touch on the key points on costs, asset sales, and balance sheet. Firstly, on costs, operating expenses of AUD 400 million in the half were up 5% on the PCP, excluding the benefit of JobKeeper last year. It's difficult to compare first half 2022 costs to the prior year, given the property closures, changed operating restrictions, higher volumes, and different mix of venues and openings. The first half costs last year also benefited not only from JobKeeper, but also a deliberately slow ramp-up in costs on reopening, which we didn't have this year. There were three key call-outs I wanted to make on costs. Firstly, we've completed a material restructuring of the cost base over the last couple of years, which has reduced fixed costs in a number of areas of the business.
That's provided the business generally with a leaner cost structure. Secondly, as Matt highlighted, COVID has resulted in a number of operating cost challenges in the first half of 2022, which, while continuing into the second half, we really see as temporary and expect to ease as we return to more normal operating conditions. Thirdly, outside of COVID-related costs, we are seeing some cost pressure more generally in the business. We're seeing inflationary pressure across a number of our cost categories. Some of that's being driven by what we'd call shorter term factors, which we expect to ease over time. An example is the impact of border closures on supply of labor in a number of corporate and hospitality roles or the costs associated with the AUSTRAC and Bell Review that are underway.
In other areas like AML compliance, responsible gambling, we are continuing to step up our investment and capability, which will see some higher costs in those areas more permanently. Overall, on costs, while, whilst there's a number of challenges, we have the benefit of the restructures which I talked about that are completed, which helps provide an offset to what's likely to be a higher cost growth environment in the near term. Secondly, on asset sales, we continue to progress with a number of the asset sales we previously talked about, consistent with our strategy to be more capital light. In the first half, we completed the VIP asset sales with the sale of our second jet. We've also entered into a contract to sell our interest in the Brisbane Treasury Buildings during the half.
We're working through the Queensland Government approvals for that transaction and plan to have the first tranche of the sale completed in the half we're currently in, which is AUD 170 million of the purchase price. The second tranche will then complete when Queen's Wharf opens, which is the remaining AUD 78 million. The process to explore the sale and leaseback of The Star Sydney property is also progressing. We continue to work on that transaction, both with engagement with prospective partners and beginning the regulatory approval process. We still believe the sale and leaseback has good merit, as we talked about at the last results, and it's a transaction we're focused on progressing this half. Then lastly, on the balance sheet, CapEx was only AUD 66 million in the half, which is well below D&A.
Our liquidity position remains strong with AUD 520 million in cash and undrawn facilities at 31 December. Given the impacts of COVID, our debt increased by around AUD 50 million in the half. Given we're coming out of the lockdowns and restrictions are easing, CapEx is still at relatively low levels, and we plan to complete that first tranche of the Treasury Building sale that I talked to. We should see that debt come down materially this half. As we've talked about on previous calls, our CapEx outlook now is also lower or in more capital efficient structures for the foreseeable future. Expect to deliver strong cash flows as the earnings recover post-COVID that will materially strengthen the balance sheet. That's all I wanted to say in terms of key points on the financials.
I'll hand back to the operator now for Matt and I to respond to any questions.
Your first question comes from Matt Ryan and Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. I just had a question about the labor cost inflation that you just mentioned, and I guess the question is, how much protection do you get from your EBAs? Or, you know, how we think about, I guess, the spot price of some of the labor that you're looking for going up, you know, how that sort of flows through in the short term?
I'll take it, Matt, and Matt can jump in as well. Look, if you look at our sort of labor cost, about half of it's in EBAs, roughly, and they do have, obviously, agreed rate increases under the EBA. We settled the Sydney one recently, so that sort of locks in an increase this year. This year's increase is a bit above what we typically see, so we're sort of running in the just under 5% for an increase in this one. But then it reverts. That's a bit of catch-up because we didn't have an increase last year, then it reverts to a sort of more normal increase, and Queensland sort of roughly at that 3%.
What we are seeing probably more in terms of those short-term challenges, though, is the mix of labor and the amount of overtime. Your base rates are increasing at sort of inflation or a little bit above in Sydney. What we probably have a challenge with in the short term, though, is with supply of labor being an issue, sick leave and absenteeism that Matt talked about. You know, we're prioritizing the customer experience and revenue to reactivate the properties, which will mean in the short term we're paying a slightly higher unit cost because we'll pay more overtime, we'll get more contracted labor, more casual labor, which is at a sort of higher rate per unit cost. We see that as temporary.
It's not a sort of permanent increase to the cost base and is really about us making sure we reactivate the property as well as we come out of COVID.
Thanks, Harry. Just a quick one on the balance sheet. I think you mentioned in the slides that you've got covenant relief for, I guess, the period just gone, and there was a slight change in wording about the upcoming testing date, something about, I guess, the ratios being changed. Can you just, I guess, confirm what that means or, you know, how we should think about that?
Yeah, sure. For the June covenant test, we annualize the second half earnings, and we've also got some extra relief where the covenant is a bit wider than it typically is for this period as well, just recognizing that the business is still ramping up post-COVID. That gives us a bit more headroom to covenants as well for this period, a bit more buffer.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question comes from Desmond Tsao with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Oh, thanks, operator. Morning, Matt. Morning, Harry. I just wanted to also ask a question just around costs on slide 16. Obviously you've taken AUD 50 million of fixed cost savings out, but you know, today you've sort of highlighted some cost headwinds, some are temporary, some may be sort of a bit more over the medium term. I guess I'm just keen to unpack costs a little bit, how we should think about the second half and more importantly, on a go-forward basis. You know, looking at that chart on the bottom right there, is the right operating cost sort of number potentially in between first half 2020 and what you've sort of just done in first half 2022?
Yeah, I'll take that as well, Desmond. Look, it will depend a bit on volumes, right? That first half of 2020 is your last sort of clean period pre-COVID. We had, at the very start of the first half 2020, completed a pretty material restructure. We'd say that first half 2020 was prior to the sort of COVID restructure we did that Vicky mainly referenced. That was a relatively normal period with the business operating at full capacity. Where costs go to from now, obviously we've got the benefit of the more recent restructure. We also talked in some areas where there's some reinvestment in that. I mean, costs are where they get to sort of post the COVID recovery, really more volume driven.
You do have costs for the VIP business in first half 2020 as well. Obviously how VIP recovers will impact where the operating costs end up as well from a volume perspective.
Desmond, it's Matt here. Structurally, we've taken a big chunk of cost out, fixed cost out. Some of that will have to come back as a result of the increased compliance, and investments that we're making to AML. But not all of it by a long way. In terms of productivity and in terms of the bulk of the labor cost, we continue to track that very carefully and we, you know, as volumes sort of normalize and as the volatility of demand sort of settles down a bit, I expect to get back into previous productivity ranges. Structurally, the cost shouldn't look too different.
Okay. Got it. No, appreciate that. Just final question just around strategic initiatives. You know, obviously sale leaseback and potential for more slots in New South Wales. Any sort of update around timing on that? Then I guess to what extent does the upcoming New South Wales inquiry and regulatory uncertainty make these conversations more challenging?
They're sort of separate. They're reasonably separate. Now, you know, the conversation around the slots, we've received communication from government last, in the last half that says, "We want to negotiate with you around those slots." Those negotiations have been slow to sort of pick up momentum, but we're now in the chute and, I expect that we'll pick that up over the next six weeks. I'm positive about that. You know, when they settle, how long that's gonna take, whether it's gonna take 2 or 3 months or 5 months, I can't tell you that. But I don't expect it to be years. The inquiry, the Bell Review here in New South Wales will, you know, is meant to conclude by the end of June.
I don't necessarily see that as an impediment.
Okay. Was there a follow-up, Mr. Tsao?
No, that's all from me. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. The next question comes from Larry Gandler in Credit Suisse Management Australia. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Great. I'll follow up on Desmond's question. Matt, just in terms of the OpCo, PropCo prioritization of that, you guys are great at juggling lots of different priorities. Is perhaps if that has been relegated to a lower priority, is that something because maybe COVID and internal issues or maybe external issues, maybe Blackstone or government, just wondering whether OpCo, PropCo has been continues to be a priority for you guys?
Larry, you know, if our presentation hasn't put through it, obviously, you know, it's gonna take a fair bit of time, but we've got now good engagement with the regulator in New South Wales. I'm positive about their willingness to engage with us. You know, there's a lot of work that has to go into the legal documentation side. Harry can talk a little bit to the responses we've had from potential investors, which is the market we continue to work with. It hasn't reduced. You know, for me, it's an important part of completing the transformation of this company, as Harry said, an asset-light operator, as opposed to, you know, an owner of assets.
I think Matt's covered it, Larry, but you know, we're still seeing good demand, I think, for the opportunity from the investment market. As Matt said, you know, something that continues to be a good focus for us, that we're excited by and think the transaction makes a lot of sense.
Okay, great. That helps. There's a comment there about Queen's Wharf about liquidated damages. I was just a bit confused. There's another sentence there that said the builders put in a claim.
Yeah.
Can you help me understand that?
I would describe it as the cut and thrust of commercial negotiations, Larry.
Yeah.
That's probably as much as I can tell you without showing our cards and sharing our negotiation position too much.
Okay. It looks like the Queen's Wharf completion date's moved maybe 3-6 months. Is that a fair assessment in any case?
That's all part of that discussion, Larry.
Okay.
Next time you go to Brisbane, let us know. We can show you around. The project is making progress. We feel very comfortable about what is being built. The internal fit-out is well underway. There's some really good parts of the project that fill us with confidence. There's gonna be other parts that, you know, we just need to work our way through, and I can't tell you too much about it. In terms of
Okay, fantastic. Oh, yes, go ahead.
Big chunk of that. We've started to fit out now, particularly the gaming floor. That's now largely weather independent, which is positive. Some of the external, the completion of the towers, that's obviously still exposed to weather in particular and possibly just closure.
Okay, fantastic. I look forward to a lunch with you in Brisbane, Matt and Harry.
Yeah.
Your next question comes from David Fabris and Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi, Matt. Hi, Harry. Can we focus on Southeast Queensland a little bit more? I've got two questions on that. Can you kinda help us understand the new hotel benefit on the Gold Coast as restrictions ease and visitation improves? I guess I'm trying to work out whether you're gonna get an earnings benefit on the hotel through the JV. Then can you maybe talk through what earnings benefit you'd expect to get on gaming and non-gaming, given that higher foot traffic? I guess this is predicated on snapping back of earnings and restrictions easing as well when we think about the benefits.
Yeah, I'll take it, David. On the hotel directly, we obviously own a third interest in the property, so we treat it as associate income. Any income that the hotel generates less all the costs, including funding costs, 'cause we'll have some asset level debt at the hotel, that will come through as a single line item as associate income. We expect that, you know, once it's fully ramped up, obviously to contribute, but it's a relatively small contribution given we only have a third interest. The bigger contribution in our sort of expectations is the impact on visitation, which talks to both the sort of non-gaming parts of the property as well as gaming.
We've previously talked to sort of an EBITDA of about AUD 10 million-AUD 15 million per annum that we expect to get as a benefit from the hotel when it's fully ramped up, in terms of the visitors. We have seen the Gold Coast bounce back pretty well. Borders obviously were closed for pretty much the whole first half, reopened in the middle part of December. We have seen good domestic visitation coming to the Gold Coast. Again, you remember the second half of last year, the Gold Coast was very strong. We're seeing that market perform well when borders are open. That's quite important.
One part of the business that hasn't come back yet with COVID is the convention business, but we're starting to see some green shoots there as well, where we're starting to see some convention bookings now in this half. You know, we won't get the full benefit of that hotel this half as Gold Coast is still in ramp up. As we look into FY 2023, you know, we expect the convention business to start coming back, and the full benefits of that hotel and the visitation to the broader property to really kick in.
David-
Great.
I add one more thing. The apartments that we're building or that we've built on top of the tower, they're sort of in the final stages. The top tier, the top end is being fitted out now. Others are complete. The settlement will start from April onwards. 110 of the apartments are currently in a letting pool that we manage, and we expect to pick out of the apartments, I guess about 50% of the apartments being in our letting pool. As a sign of confidence, you know, 50% of those apartments are already booked out for the second half, so through the letting pool. I'm pretty optimistic that once the border opens up and everybody sort of settles down, we'll see really nice demand build up into the Gold Coast.
On top of the hotel, we've, you know, we've spent the time. We've built a new bar. We've actually two new bars, a new restaurant. There's a lot of exciting new stuff on the property. We don't have to do anything more on gaming. We've got good gaming spaces available. You know, this, the next couple of years, it will be when we start to yield that property.
That makes sense. It'll be exciting to see how that all unravels from there. The other question is just around Queen's Wharf Brisbane. On slide 25, you look at the key dates there, and you talk about a first stage opening in the first half calendar year 2023 and a planned opening for mid 2023. Can you help us understand the timing of Queen's Wharf Brisbane? Has that slipped 6 months?
We said the last result, we obviously talked to an updated. That had us opening in the first half. Matt talked to weather. We've had some extra delays to that program. We've had a lot of wet weather, so it's sort of pushing towards the end of the half now. You know, we're talking about middle of 2023. I wouldn't say. I'd say we're sort of a couple of months later at this point. Until we get to that sort of top of the towers and weather's no longer an issue, we've still got a little bit of risk, right? It's somewhere late in the first half, middle of the year. That is our best guess now. That has some contingency, but you know, the risk of further delaying now is decreasing every month.
Probably until we're into the middle of this year, we won't be absolutely certain on when the opening is.
Yeah. Gotcha. You'll probably provide more clarity on how it opens if you concurrently run the two casinos or you kind of just flip a button and you're up and running live or whatever.
We have under the agreement with government, we've got 3 months where we can run both properties in parallel. It's not gonna be a matter of just switching, you know, switching from one to the other. We have a very detailed plan of how we will gradually move activities across. From an operational point of view, you know, it's moving into a new building and starting with a totally new operation in every aspect is not attractive. You know, that's why we're going to a much more gradual process.
No, that makes sense. Thanks a lot for answering the questions.
Thank you, David.
Your next question comes in from Evans & Partners. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Matt and Harry. Just another question on the cost side. I'm just trying to simplify it a bit for our modeling. If we assume domestic volumes return to first half 2020 levels, and let's say VIP gets back to, say, 50% of first half 2020 levels, I mean, should we be expecting OpEx to be in line with that AUD 540 run rate that we saw in that half?
Pretty much, Sasha. It will depend a little bit on inflation, right? The 540 run rate in first half 2020, obviously you've had wages growing since then, so you've had some inflation that you've got to factor in.
Mm-hmm.
You've also had the fixed costs program that we've executed that helped offset some of the inflation. Then we're reinvesting some more into AML and RG, which we talked about, that you know you sort of got to factor in that reinvest some of the fixed cost program, but obviously you know it's only a relatively small portion.
Yep. Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. I'm just hoping you can share a bit more color on how both Gold Coast and Brisbane are performing in February. I think you haven't provided those sort of versus pre-COVID charts that you provided at the full year.
Yeah. Matt sort of talked to that trend of first two weeks of January being soft. That was pretty much across the board for the property. It was particularly pronounced in Sydney. The recovery in Sydney's been very strong. Gold Coast has been pretty strong as well. Brisbane's probably the property that's lagging the most for us, which makes sense in the sense that we're seeing CBD visitation continue to be really soft, which impacts Brisbane. I think Queensland from a domestic consumer perspective is a little bit behind Sydney as well in terms of the impact of COVID and the consumer response. We are seeing a bit more cautiousness from the customer just in terms of willingness to go out given the increased number of cases in the community.
You know, we've seen Sydney sort of get through that relatively well. Brisbane's probably the one area that's lagging the most. We still think it follows the same pattern in time, but it will take a little bit more time than we've seen in Sydney. That's sort of Sydney's probably the strongest bounce back then Gold Coast and Brisbane's lagging a little bit.
Yeah. Got it. In that chart you provided on Sydney pretty much indicates that both tables and EGMs, you know, as of the last couple of weeks are trading in line with pre-COVID levels. Is that correct?
It looks. Slots are a bit above now, so they're generating some good growth. Look, you gotta be cautious 'cause it's two weeks, right?
Mm-hmm.
Extrapolating 2 weeks, but slots are performing well and, you know, at least for the February period, are demonstrating that they're above pre-COVID levels. Tables are getting closer, but not quite there yet. But obviously a big improvement from where we've been.
Got it. Final question. In August, I think you said you were open to exploring value-enhancing opportunities with Crown. No mention of Crown in this presentation from that, given the recent developments.
I think the reality is, I think we've said that, you know, the AUD 13.10 is a very rich price, particularly given the likely regulatory action in Victoria and in New South Wales around some of the operating conditions and the absence of synergies. That's for other people to decide, but for us that looks like a very rich. That's sort of fact one. Fact two is, you know, look, you know, how the next 3-6 months pan out, that is the pretty aggressive timetable that has been put forward by Crown and acquirer. I don't know whether that's realistic, and I don't know whether the regulators in this country and the state governments will be complying with the wishes of the American financiers.
Let's just see how that all unfolds.
That's helpful. Thank you.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Simon Thackray in Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much. Good morning, Matt. Good morning, Harry, and Mark. Just following on from a well explored line of questioning on costs, I think more to gain understanding than anything else. Is it correct to say that outside some non-gaming price adjustments for inflation, you don't have any pricing power in gaming? And recovery is gonna be entirely dependent therefore on volume, as you pointed out before, Harry. Can we talk about are there any additional efforts or costs in promoting loyalty, in promoting traffic that we're gonna see, to help try and drive that volume? Or do you think it's just an organic volume recovery story, you know, of punters coming back to entertain themselves and to play?
Simon, you do have some levers. Obviously, pricing on table games is your minimum bet. You can adjust that obviously in an inflationary environment, and same thing on slots, the denomination in terms of your mix of games. I wouldn't say you don't have any to try and offset sort of wage inflation. You can sort of push customers. We look at that all the time in getting the pricing strategy around tables and slots right relative to driving the demand.
Mm-hmm.
I'd say in the short term for us, we're very focused on reactivating the properties. You know, Sydney's had obviously the toughest time of our three properties with COVID. It's been shut or under very severe operating restrictions for a long period of time. Now that we've got a pathway out of COVID, you know, the big opportunity for us is to get that customer back, particularly the mass market customer that, you know, has obviously not had a great experience at the property for a long period of time. We're gonna be very focused in the short term around activation of the property, and that's critical. We're seeing good success from that, right?
The way Sydney's bounced back in that sort of October, November period, and then obviously Omicron hit and created some challenges, but we've seen it bounce back really quickly. That's a really encouraging sign for us.
Yeah. Simon, if I can give you a little bit more color about, you know, plus the 70% of our revenue domestically comes from customers who are on loyalty. If you look at those customers, we see particularly that the older customer base hasn't come back yet. We're sitting at about, you know, 70% of reactivation of the customer base. The focus will have to be for us-
To go back into our customer base and reactivate these customers. That's where my comment about, you know, once the mask mandates fall away, and there's a sense that everything is safe, and you can go out without getting sick, that's gonna help us very substantially. The first port of call for us will be to reactivate the customers that we know well and who we know, you know, have come visit us frequently in the past.
Does that come with extra cost, Matt, though? I think that's what I'm saying. Is there a further investment to do that? Or is that at minimal cost, that reactivation? I'm trying to understand the scale of it, I guess.
That's pretty minimal. Simon, it's you know, we have them on the database. It's all through direct marketing.
It's all communications more than anything else.
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. I mean, I guess, Harry, going back to your question about staff and retention and, you know, the extra costs. I mean, you can't get a restaurant booking in Sydney to save your life at the moment. Not because they're capacity constrained. They just don't have the staff. You know, are you seeing increased visitation because you do have that staffing and that capacity? Or are you in the same boat as everybody else, you're operating with restrictions because-
Yeah
It's just hard to have numbers?
Simon, we're in a much better position. We're in a much better position 'cause, you know, even when at the peak, when we were down 40% of our staff, we can consolidate fewer restaurants and share staff around to, you know, keep a core of restaurants going, which we did. Now, our staff are all coming back. They're coming back very quickly. You know, we're sort of into single digits of absentees at this point, which is very positive. We still have a lot of positions that we're recruiting for. We are getting people who apply for the jobs and are joining us.
I do think that, you know, what we've done over the last 12-18 months with our communication and the way we've paid up has communicated to a lot of people that if they're gonna be in hospitality, they know that we'll be looking after them. That's coming through. Yes, our hospitality numbers are really strong because we have the staff, and we can serve our customers. For your next date with your wife or your partner, call Mark, and we will get you into any of the restaurants.
Sounds good. I think I'll take you up on that, Matt. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
Your next question comes from Rohan Sundram and MST Financial. Please go ahead.
Hi, Matt and Harry. Thanks for that. Just the one from me. Matt, you mentioned earlier the strong customer loyalty and resilience that was on display in that half. Can I just get some thoughts on how does that make you feel about your offering, and how confident are you in that offering going into a period where you've got a major competing property opening up soon in Sydney?
Yeah. The good thing about the Crown opening is it's been on the cards for a long time, right? We've had a lot of time to prepare for that. We have thought very deeply about our proposition, our positioning relative to Crown. We have made an investment into our own private gaming facilities, and we think we are, in terms of the physical assets, very competitive. We think in terms of our loyalty system, we are very competitive. We've been able to retain pretty much all of the staff servicing the top tier of the customer base that will be targeted by Crown. I think in pretty much every aspect of competition, we are well-prepared.
There is no doubt, though, when Crown opens up that a lot of people will try and have a look, and I'm sure that Crown will be very aggressive in pursuing these customers. Within the next sort of 6-12 months, we will find an equilibrium, and I am very confident that this will be one that is going to be positive for us.
Thanks, Matt.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Bekier for closing remarks. If there wasn't anything else, I'm sorry.
No, that's all right. Look, I'll just say to all the investors, you know, if you do wanna come over and have another tour, look at the facilities. You know, we expect that the mask mandates will disappear from the end of this month here in Sydney. Very happy to give you a tour and just show you what we have, so you can sort of refresh yourself of why we think that we are in a good competitive position. But you know, other than that, look, I do wanna thank you again for your interest and your support through this half. We are pretty positive about what the next six months is going to bring because we see more positive developments in terms of the COVID restrictions falling away.
We have exciting things in the pipeline. We look forward to the next six months. Obviously, the inquiries, the Bell Review in particular, will be absorbing a lot of effort. You know, we are working with the inquiry. We, you know, seek to be totally transparent and, you know, that will be done by the end of this financial year. You know, upwards and onwards. Thank you. Thank you.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.