Thank you for standing by, and welcome to The Star Entertainment Group first half FY 2025 financial results. We ask today that you please do not record or reproduce the call in any capacity. 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. Steve McCann, Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for joining us today for The Star Entertainment Group's first half FY 2025 results. On the 7th and 8th of April, The Star announced to the ASX details of a $ 300 million strategic investment from Bally's Corporation and Investment Holdings. Following those announcements, The Star's accounts investor presentation and results release for the six months ending 31 December 2024 were lodged with the ASX today. The Star's securities are expected to resume trading tomorrow, noting the securities of The Star have been suspended from quotation on ASX since 28 February 2025. Today, I'll provide an update on the business, including a recap of key recent developments, as well as a summary of our first half financial results and an update on year-to-date trading to the end of the third quarter.
Slides six to nine in the presentation provide a summary of those items, which I'll address throughout the presentation as I cover select slides. There is substantial detail included in the Star's recent ASX announcements, and I would encourage you to read those documents in full in conjunction with the documents lodged this morning. I'll hand over to Frank in a moment, but just as a quick overview, clearly our performance continues to be very challenged as we navigate through a very difficult trading environment. We have been working very hard on establishing additional liquidity for the company to continue to trade through, and that has led us to the Bally's and Investment Holdings announcement, which I'll come back to.
The ongoing impact of regulatory reforms, the impact of mandatory carded play cash limits, time limits, and our loss of market share across the Sydney and Gold Coast properties has had a material impact on the business, and we are continuing to operate through very challenging conditions. We have worked hard on taking out costs. We can talk a bit about the achievement and cost out during this presentation. We need to also work very hard on regaining market share, reactivating customers who have not been coming to the Star in recent months, and those initiatives are all underway. There is a lot to do. We are very hopeful that with the Bally's and Investment Holdings capital injections, that will provide us the time and breathing space to work on those revenue initiatives and turn this business around over the medium term. I'll hand over to Frank now.
Thank you, Steve. I'll focus on the financials beginning on slide 12 of the presentation. You can see in H1 FY 2025, The Star recorded normalized revenue of $ 650 million, down 25% from H1 FY 2024, and an EBITDA loss of $ 26 million for the period. It should be noted that for the purpose of comparison with prior periods, The Star's results have been impacted by the closure of the Treasury Brisbane Casino and the opening of Star Brisbane in August 2024. I'll touch on this a bit more later on. The performance of the business deteriorated over the first half with the key drivers including a decline in revenue driven by challenging trading conditions, the continued impact of casino operating reforms, and a declining market share.
The drop in revenue resulted in a decline in earnings driven by continued negative operating leverage from lower revenues and elevated operating expenses. Part of the reason for elevated costs is the continued progression of remediation and transformation activities, partially offset by the implementation of our $ 100 million cost-out program. While gaming revenue was down, non-gaming performance has remained relatively stable. For H1 FY 2025, The Star reported a statutory net loss of $ 302 million after significant items of $ 166 million. Turning now to slide 13, The Star Sydney recorded revenue of $ 362 million, down 19.5% from H1 FY 2024. Domestic gaming revenue was down 23%, with trading activity impacted by the introduction of mandatory carded play and cash limits at the property and the resulting loss of market share.
Since 19 October 2024, the date on which mandatory carded play and cash limits were implemented across the broader casino, average daily gaming revenue at The Star Sydney to 6 April 2025 has declined 17% compared to the four-week daily average prior to 19 August 2024, which is the initial date of the first stage of implementation of reforms. Non-gaming revenue was relatively stable at $ 71 million in H1 FY 2025, down 3% from the prior period, with the decline in revenue impacted by a reduction in visitation across the gaming business. Operating expenses remained flat in H1 FY 2025. The operating expenditure reflects a change in The Star's corporate allocation framework for The Star Sydney from 60% to 45%.
Operating expenses were impacted by higher employee costs driven by a 5% EBA award increase and investments in strengthening the control environment and additional supervisors to support cashless gaming. Turning to slide 14, performance at the Star Gold Coast was also down, recording revenue of $ 218 million for the period, down 8% from H1 FY 2024. Domestic gaming revenue was down 13% driven by the continued impact of increased controls in casino industry reform, loss of market share, and the macroeconomic environment. Non-gaming revenue remained flat on the prior period, while operating expenditure was up $ 7 million, predominantly due to higher compliance-related costs.
Turning now to slide 16, as I mentioned earlier, the H1 FY 2025 results for the group reflect a partial contribution from Treasury Brisbane Casino, which closed on 25 August 2024, and a partial contribution from the Star Brisbane, which commenced its phase opening from 29 August 2024. The earnings from the Star Brisbane are equity accounted by the Star. Consequently, the Treasury Brisbane Casino earnings have been replaced by the Star Brisbane operator fee and the Star Brisbane allocated corporate costs in the group's consolidated EBITDA line. The Star Brisbane recorded an EBITDA loss of $ 20 million in H1 FY 2025, comprising an operator fee of $ 14 million and expenses of $ 34 million, representing the Star's 35% corporate cost allocation to the property since it opened.
Following the announced transaction with our joint venture partners to exit the Star Brisbane and consolidate our Gold Coast assets, the structure of the operator fee has changed to a fixed fee of $ 5 million per month from March 2025 until June 2026, and $ 6 million per month thereafter. The Star will continue as operator of the Star Brisbane for a transitional period ending 31 March 2026. This remains subject to extension. Separately, the Star's share of net profit from DBC is reflected in the Star's accounts as a share of net profit loss of associates and was a loss of $ 20 million in H1 FY 2025. Now to slide 18. You can see on this slide the key items that impacted the Star's cash position between 30 June and 31 December 2024.
In H1 FY 2025, The Star's cash position was negatively impacted by cash outflows from operations, CapEx, finance costs, and equity contributions to DBC. Of key cash inflows in the half included proceeds from non-core asset sales and the drawdown of The Star's $ 100 million super senior debt facility. Part of The Star's strategy to improve our cash and liquidity position has been to continue to execute on the sale of non-core assets. In H1 FY 2025, The Star announced the sale of the Treasury Brisbane Casino building to Griffith University. The net proceeds of $ 60 million from this transaction were deposited in a restricted deposit account under the terms of the group's debt facility agreement. On 8 April 2025, The Star completed the sale of the event center and associated spaces for $ 60 million.
As part of the conditions for receiving net consent on the transaction, the proceeds from this transaction will be held in escrow. There is a full amount to be released to The Star, subject to shareholder approval in relation to the Bally's strategic investment. As of 11 April 2025, The Star had available cash of $ 98 million. The Star's available cash balance has continued to be impacted by the performance of the business, along with early JV contributions and one-off costs in the period since 31 December. To offset the declining cash balance, The Star has received recent cash payments, including $ 45 million in March 2025 in relation to The Star's exit of DBC and $ 100 million of cash proceeds from tranche one of the $ 300 million strategic investment by Bally's and Investment Holdings.
The Star has also entered into binding agreements to receive additional funds of $ 200 million from Bally's and Investment Holdings, which is subject to shareholder approval. I'll now hand back to Steve.
Thanks, Frank. Turning to slide 20. On 7 March, The Star announced an agreement to exit our equity interest in the Destination Brisbane Consortium and consolidate our position on the Gold Coast, including the transfer of interest in certain Brisbane and Gold Coast assets. Whilst it is disappointing to have to exit our DBC investment, the announced agreement with our joint venture partners is a critical milestone for the company in providing near-term liquidity and a pathway for a viable future for The Star and its stakeholders. Our team worked very hard to deliver The Star Brisbane and established a new precinct in Brisbane. We'll remain focused on driving performance while we work with our joint venture partners and regulators to transition to a new casino operator in due course.
We are excited about the opportunity this transaction creates for us on the Gold Coast, including increasing The Star's ownership to 100% of two new Gold Coast hotels. Once we optimize the operation of these new hotels and our strategy under full ownership, we see significant opportunity to enhance our unique, fully integrated offering on the Gold Coast. Just turning to some important features of the transaction, these include The Star being released from its parent company guarantee in relation to its 50% share of the DBC debt facility, which has a current drawn debt balance of $ 1.4 billion. The Star is no longer being required to fund additional equity contributions after 31 March 2025.
We had otherwise expected future equity contributions to be at least $ 212 million, excluding any additional equity contributions that may have been required as part of the refinancing of the DBC debt facility at maturity in December 2025. The Star will continue to receive an operator fee of $ 5 million per month from March 2025 onwards until the end of the transition period. This compares with operator fee revenue of $ 2.4 million in January 2025 and $ 2.6 million in February 2025. DBC will also be responsible for funding reasonable costs associated with transferring or standing up employees, services, and related systems from The Star to DBC under an agreed transition plan. We believe this transaction de-risks future earnings uncertainty for The Star in relation to the financial performance of Star Brisbane, while still providing for potential earn-out payment of up to $ 225 million in calendar year 2030.
This transaction also creates for The Star a significant opportunity to enhance our fully integrated offering on the Gold Coast. Under the transaction, The Star will receive full ownership of the two new hotels, being the Dorsett and the Andaz, while retaining our future development rights to develop up to three additional towers in the precinct, turning to slide 21. The Star announced on the 7th of April 2025 that we've entered into a binding term sheet with Bally's for an $ 300 million strategic investment into The Star, structured across a multi-tranche convertible note and subordinated debt instrument. Following that announcement, The Star entered into a binding commitment with Investment Holdings PTY Limited, which is the Matheson family-run company, to subscribe for $ 100 million of the strategic investment amount under the same terms of the Bally's investment.
The announced transaction with Bally's and Investment Holdings provides The Star with critical liquidity required in the short and medium term. The $ 300 million is structured across two tranches. Tranche one for $ 100 million was received by The Star on 9 April. The funding of tranche two of $ 200 million is subject to The Star shareholders approving the transaction and the investors receiving regulatory approvals. $ 100 million will be paid to The Star following shareholder approval, with a further $ 100 million to be paid following the receipt of all required regulatory approvals, but no later than two business days after 7 October 2025, if regulatory approvals are still outstanding at that point in time. The instruments will be subject to a coupon of 9% per annum. The conversion price for all the notes issued under both tranche one and tranche two is $ 0.08 per share.
Turning to slide 22 to provide an update on trading in Q3 FY 2025, the group recorded revenue of $ 271 million compared to $ 299 million, down 9% on the prior quarter. The deteriorating revenue reflects a further softening in revenue post a seasonally strong second quarter in FY 2025, reduced levels of gaming visitation, as well as the one-off impact of adverse weather events, which drove property closures in Queensland in March 2025. Group EBITDA was a loss of $ 21 million for Q3, a decline of $ 13 million relative to Q2 FY 2025. The decline in EBITDA reflects continued negative operating leverage, as revenue has declined materially despite reduced corporate costs of The Star. The Star Sydney revenue declined over the quarter, predominantly due to typical seasonality, with January being a high-revenue trading period, but also impacted by relatively weak hold-on win rates and declining volumes.
The Star Gold Coast was impacted by a temporary five-day property closure in March 2025 due to tropical cyclone Alfred, in addition to the impact of a gradual ramp-up from reopening to pre-closure trading levels. Prior to the closure, the Star Gold Coast also experienced weaker trading performance in February. At our FY 24 results, we announced a cost-out target of $ 100 million by March 2025, which Frank has already spoken to. The Star has achieved the previously announced $ 100 million reduction in annualized cost savings versus the peak corporate cost run rate at the start of the financial year. Further work is now being undertaken to embed these cost savings and to identify additional areas of cost-out opportunity. Moving to slide 24.
On 28 March, The Star announced it had been advised that the Star Sydney Casino license will remain suspended until at least 30 September 2025, and that the manager's appointment for the Star Sydney Casino has been extended until the same date. On 28 March, The Star also announced it has been advised that the Star Gold Coast license, which has been suspended, with suspension being deferred and the term of the special manager extended to 30 September 2025. In relation to the Star Brisbane, the term of the external advisor has also been extended to 30 September. We appreciate the decisions of both states to defer suspension of The Star's casino license, and we recognize the importance of continuing to deliver on our commitments under the remediation plan and returning to suitability.
On slide 25, the introduction of mandatory carded play and $ 5,000 cash limits was introduced across the entire gaming floor in Star Sydney by 19 October 2024. Cash limits are due to reduce to $ 1,000 by 19 August 2025. The Star also continues to implement additional capability and enhancement to drive better outcomes in the areas of financial crime and safer gambling. In relation to outstanding major litigation and claims, resolution of the AUSTRAC civil penalty proceedings remains ongoing. The hearing on liability and penalty is currently due to commence on 2 June 2025. There's one class action proceeding that's continuing. The potential financial impacts of resolution of those proceedings are unknown, noting that The Star continues to defend the proceeding.
Regarding the underpaid New South Wales casino duty, The Star has reached agreement with the New South Wales government on the amount payable, and that has pushed timing of payment out to 30 June 2026. I believe that covers the material we intended to cover, and I'll now open to questions from people on the line.
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. We will now pause momentarily for questions to be registered. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. Your first question comes from Jeffrey Miles, a private investor. Please go ahead. Apologies. Your first question comes from George Stroblopoulos with Gates. Please go ahead.
Yes, hello. My name is George. I just wanted to ask a couple of questions around this recent share issue. It's been noted that you've issued shares at $ 0.08. Is there a potential for current investors to also buy support shares at the similar amount? My second question is, how likely is the Star to get back into the margin LVR on the ASX? Thank you.
Sorry, George. Apologies, but if you could ask your second question again. I didn't quite catch that.
The question is, are shareholders able to acquire shares at the similar rate of $0.08 where current shares have been issued? Also, with the margin LVR on the stock exchange, now there is zero margin LVR against The Star. Is it likely to—are you having a plan to get back to an LVR rating so margin lending can be applied again in the future?
Okay. Sorry. In relation to the second question, we'll come back to you on that. I don't have an answer for that question for you at the moment. In relation to the first question, we have a number of things that we need to work through with Bally's in relation to their investment and with Investment Holdings. We're working through long-form documentation now as fast as we can to get to an agreement. There are a number of conditions associated with that agreement. We are not currently contemplating a broader share issue at this point in time prior to the vote. We need to get to the vote and obtain shareholder approval for the transaction to continue and for us to have the liquidity injection that we require. We'll consider whether or not it's appropriate to raise additional capital as part of that work.
Our current focus is to get through everything we need to to get to the vote. For shareholders, we've given the opportunity to approve the transaction if they think that it's appropriate. We will be recommending the transaction in the absence of a superior proposal emerging between now and then.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Oliver Ridge with CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi, Steve and Frank. At the top of the call, you mentioned that there's some revenue initiatives that you'd like to work on in time. I was just wondering what these initiatives are. I was also wondering if you could touch on the government's current appetite to level the playing field or whether they have suggested any timing around this. Thank you.
Thank you. Excuse me. On the revenue initiatives, there are a range of things that—sorry, just one second. Apologies. There are a range of things that we are working on. Some of them really would be considered to be business-as-usual activities for a gaming operator to be focused on, and they include customer management interaction. One of the things that we have experienced has been a very poor customer experience as we've implemented the rollout of both the carded play, cash limits, time limits, and also our enhanced customer due diligence processes. People have been impacted by the suddenness of the communications, occurring by the way that their play has had to change. It is fair to say that the Star's existing financial position has also added to an environment which is less attractive for our customers than it should be.
We are working hard on reestablishing those customer relationships and reactivating some customers who are not coming to the Star anymore because they do not like that combination of impacts. They do not experience that at the pubs and clubs. There is a lot of work going into that. There are also non-gaming aspects of our business which we believe we can improve materially in terms of getting footfall improved across our non-gaming facilities and driving a better environment and atmosphere across those facilities. We are looking at leasing out some of our food and beverage tenancies as well to generate both higher revenue but also a broader engagement with different operators. In relation to the level playing field question, we do believe that there is strong appetite with the regulators and state governments to achieve a safer gambling environment across the board.
It's very clear that customers that are no longer gaming at The Star are continuing to game elsewhere. Total revenue across New South Wales and Queensland in gaming machines has actually increased in recent years. It's the market share that The Star has that has materially declined. If we were to regain a material proportion of that market share, we will be able to restore our revenue to profitable levels relatively quickly. In order for us to do that, we need to work on our own revenue initiatives but also work with the government and governments and regulators to help demonstrate that we can run an environment of safer gambling and fully carded play in a way that clearly demonstrates others can do it as well. As we work with them to achieve that, we believe that there will be a level playing field that emerges.
It's likely to take a few years to achieve, but we believe there's a strong appetite to do it. Very hard to put a date on it. Clearly, we'll be doing our best to move as quickly as we can to achieve that.
Your next question comes from David Kingston with K Capital Group. Please go ahead.
Hi, Steve. Congratulations on the Bally's deal. Wow, it's just in time. Well done. Look, two questions. I believe carded play hasn't yet started in the Queensland casinos. Could you clarify on that situation and when it's likely to start, given the impact it has? Secondly, Steve, you work on upgrading the sale of the Sydney hotel rooms, particularly The Darling. Just if you clarify whether that's still a possibility. Thank you.
Thanks, David. In relation to your second question on the Darling, under the arrangements with Bally's, we're not progressing any further non-core asset sales at this point in time. In relation to the transaction that we have announced with our joint venture partners in Queensland, we have also, as part of that transaction, we'll be transferring the remaining Treasury non-core assets across to our joint venture partners. For the time being, the non-core asset sale program is essentially paused. In relation to carded play in Queensland, you're correct. We have not gotten to the introduction of carded play or cash limits in Queensland yet. It's unclear what the timing of that is likely to be.
From The Star's perspective, we believe that the most rational thing would be for us to consolidate the performance in Sydney, stabilization of the IT platform, and have a period of time to demonstrate how best to manage the impact of carded and cash limits before they are rolled out in Queensland. We are having an ongoing dialogue with government in relation to that, but that is our preference. Obviously, it is not within our control as to when that occurs.