I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Steve McCann, Group CEO. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thank you everybody for joining The Star Entertainment Group's FY2025 Results Presentation. Today, we'll provide an update on the business, including a recap on key developments that occurred during FY2025, a summary of The Star's FY2025 Financial Performance, a trading update, and also a summary of our near-term focus areas. In addition to the results announcements lodged on the ASX this morning, there's further detail in other recent ASX announcements, and I would encourage you to read those announcements in conjunction with today's releases. This morning, The Star filed its unaudited preliminary financial report for the year ended 30 June 2025. The financial report is in the process of being audited, and it's expected to include an emphasis of matter in relation to our ability to continue as a going concern, as well as regulatory and legal matters. There are multiple interdependencies that are critical to The Star's future. We continue to require support from a range of stakeholders, including governments, regulators, lenders, and investors. Without support from each of those stakeholders, it'll be difficult to overcome the various challenges we're facing and to continue operating in our current form. We'll include a detailed assessment of going concern considerations in our audited FY2025 financial statements, which we're targeting to lodge by 30 September 2025. Turning to the business update, just on slide six. In FY2025, The Star's financial performance materially deteriorated, reflecting the impact of regulatory reforms, including mandatory carded play and cash limits at The Star Sydney, implementation of The Star's remediation programs, and a loss of market share. Gaming revenue was particularly impacted, while non-gaming revenue remained relatively stable. The FY2025 normalized group revenue was $1.2 billion, down just over 29% year -on -year. This softer revenue resulted in an EBITDA loss before significant items of $77 million, despite delivering on our $100 million annualized cost-out target that was announced at our FY2024 results. Group NPAT before significant items was a loss of $259 million, while statutory NPAT was a loss of $471.5 million. Despite the challenges that the group continues to face, we have made positive progress on a number of regulatory matters, including our remediation programs. We continue to work through our remediation plan to regain suitability, as the reinstatement of our licenses is critical for improving our performance at attracting and retaining the best people and accessing capital markets. As you're aware, The Star Sydney license remains suspended, with the NIC expected to make a recommendation in relation to its suspension before 30 September 2025. The Star will be providing a submission on its suitability as a holder concerning a license to the NIC by 31 August 2025. Similarly at The Star Gold Coast, deferral of the license suspension remains, with the OLGR also expected to make a recommendation in relation to that deferral before 30 September 2025. The Star provided a submission on its suitability to hold a casino license to the OLGR on 31 July. The return to suitability for both licenses will also be dependent on the company demonstrating that we have a pathway to a viable financial future. During the period, we've taken a number of steps to access additional liquidity and address specific uncertainties in addition to our cost-out program. We amended the group's senior debt facility in November 2024 and obtained waivers for covenant testing through to and including 30 June 2025. As we announced to the ASX on Wednesday this week, we are currently in negotiations with the group's senior lenders regarding covenant waivers for 30 September and 31 December 2025. We've not yet been able to reach agreement with our lenders. We've also sold non-core assets during the year, including the Treasury Casino Building for $60 million and Sydney Event Centre for another circa $60 million. Just before the year end, we received shareholder approval for a $300 million strategic investment from Bally's and Investment Holdings, which provided much-needed liquidity. $233 million of the funds have been received by The Star to date, with the remaining $67 million due to come in no later than 9 October 2025. Lastly, earlier this month, we executed binding long-form documentation with our joint venture partners to exit DBC and to consolidate Gold Coast assets. We've received consent from both Bally's and Investment Holdings to support the transaction, and we are now working towards completion of the DBC component of the transaction by 30 November this year. Completion of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of multiple conditions precedent, some of which are outside our direct control. Further detail on the transaction can be found in our ASX announcement that was made on 12 August 2025. As you can see, despite the challenges, there has been a lot of progress made in FY2025, and I want to acknowledge the hard work and commitment of our team. There is a lot that we continue to work hard to resolve in order to create a sustainable future for the business. I'll now hand to Frank, our CFO, to unpack the FY2025 results in further detail.
Thank you, Steve, and thanks everyone for making time to join the call. I'll start with an overview of the P&L on slide 8. Normalized revenue of $1.2 billion declined 29%, as Steve mentioned, primarily due to the 37% fall in gaming revenue. When comparing FY2025 group results to prior periods, it is important to note that the FY2025 result reflects the closure of the Treasury Brisbane Casino, with revenues from The Star Brisbane now recognized through our equity-accounted investment. Excluding the Treasury Brisbane transition impact, domestic gaming revenue declined 22% over the year, with an even decline experienced across premium and main gaming floor products. Non-gaming revenue was broadly stable. Operating expenditure, including corporate costs, reduced by $109 million, supported by our cost-out program, closure of the Treasury Brisbane Casino, and reduced volume-related costs. This was partly offset by continued spend on remediation activities and increased investment in risk management, controls, and IT. Despite this reduction in operating costs, The Star Group reported an EBITDA loss of $77 million, as earnings were impacted by negative operating leverage from declining revenues. Statutory NPAT was a loss of $472 million after significant items of $212 million. Significant items predominantly related to impairment costs on our investment in DBC of $108 million, group funding costs of $71 million, and regulatory and redundancy costs of $33 million. Turning to the performance across the properties. In Sydney, revenue was $685 million, down 22% versus the prior year. Gaming revenue was the key reason for the decline, down 25%, while non-gaming revenue was down 5%. Operationally, the transition to mandatory carded play, $5,000 daily cash limits, and broader reform settings continued to weigh on activity across the property. Importantly, the current $5,000 daily cash limit at The Star Sydney was expected to reduce to a $1,000 limit on 19 August. However, on 5 August 2025, the New South Wales Government agreed to defer the reduction for two years. Operating expenditure at the property declined by $37 million, reflecting a change in our corporate cost allocation framework for The Star Sydney from 60% to 45%. This was offset by higher employee costs and investments in strengthening the control environment. Looking now at the Gold Coast on slide 10. Performance at The Star Gold Coast has also continued to decline, recording revenue of $411 million, down 10% from FY2024. Gaming revenue was down 14%, driven by the continued impact of uplifted controls on the gaming floor and casino industry reforms, loss of market share, and the general macroeconomic environment. Non-gaming revenue declined 2%, driven by declining F&B revenue offset by an increase in hotel and event conferencing activity. Operating expenditure was up $5 million due to increased employee costs and higher marketing spend. Turning to Treasury Brisbane, the Treasury Brisbane segment performance reflects the closure of the Treasury Brisbane Casino on 25 August 2024, ahead of the opening of The Star Brisbane on 29 August 2024, being one year ago today. The Treasury Casino Building was sold following the closure of the casino operations, while the Treasury Brisbane Hotel and Car Park remain assets of the group and continue to operate. These assets are proposed to be sold to our joint venture partners, Chow Tai Fook and Far East Consortium, as part of the agreement to exit DBC and consolidate our assets on the Gold Coast. For The Star Brisbane, results for the group reflect The Star's operator fee and allocated corporate costs. The earnings on the group's 50% interest in the property are equity accounted in our P&L. The Star Brisbane recorded an EBITDA loss of $50 million in FY2025, comprising operator fee revenue of $30 million and expenses of $80 million. These costs represent a 35% corporate cost allocation to the property from opening. Separately, The Star's share of net profit on its investment in DBC was a loss of $46 million in FY2025. Following the execution of binding long-form documents to exit DBC, there are several changes that will apply to the operator fee. The Star will be entitled to a fixed fee of $5 million per month for the remainder of FY2026, which is approximately $2 million higher per month compared to the current fee under the original management agreement. It should be noted that the higher fee will be subject to certain escrow arrangements and subject to The Star remaining operator of the property. Turning now to slide 13. Part of the earnings decline over the past few years is attributable to an increase in group corporate costs. The group corporate cost line has increased by $86 million between FY2022 and FY2024, largely due to increased spend on transformation and remediation-related activities, which have been running at over $60 million per annum in this period. Following a review of our corporate cost base in September 2024, we announced the target cost-out program of $100 million in annualized costs. Annualized corporate costs from the first quarter in FY2025 have declined by $119 million compared to the fourth quarter. This reduction reflects a combination of achieving our $100 million cost-out target and the decentralization of certain costs into the properties. We continue to look at opportunities for further cost reduction moving into FY2026. Looking now at the cash position, key cash inflows in FY2025 included proceeds from non-core asset sales, including the Treasury Casino Building and Sydney Event Centre, $45 million of upfront cash consideration from the DBC transaction, the drawdown of the $100 million super senior debt facility, and $228 million of net proceeds received from the Bally's and Investment Holdings' strategic investment. Offsetting this was cash outflows from operations, CapEx, finance costs, and equity contributions to DBC. At 30 June 2025, The Star had an available cash balance of $234 million, $32 million in caged cash, and $97 million of restricted cash. The restricted cash includes $61 million in cash relating to the sale of the Treasury Casino Building. This is held in a disposal proceeds account, which is secured in favor of our senior lenders. As at 25 August 2025, we had available cash of $189 million, which includes the impact of paying historical deferred casino taxes of $16 million post-balance date. Looking ahead, there remains $67 million payable by Bally's no later than 9 October 2025, in accordance with the terms of their strategic investment. I will now hand back to Steve to go through the remainder of the pack.
Thank you, Frank. I'm now on slide 16. Our capital structure has changed considerably in FY2025. In November 2024, we announced the amendment of our senior debt facility. As at 30 June 2025, we had a $438 million facility in place, drawn to $434 million. In accordance with the terms of The Star's syndicated facility agreement, the senior debt facility is subject to financial covenants. During FY2025, we obtained waivers for financial covenant testing through to and including the 30 June 2025 covenant testing period. We're in discussions with our lenders regarding waivers for future covenant testing, including the September and December 2025 periods. There is no guarantee these waivers will be granted. However, we remain focused on addressing the upcoming financial covenant waiver requirements, as well as reviewing our ongoing capital structure. Further update on this matter can be found in The Star's ASX announcement of 27 August 2025. Our capital structure was also impacted by the strategic investment from Bally's and Investment Holdings. To date, $233 million has been funded, which comprises $177 million of subordinated debt and $56 million of convertible notes. Following regulatory approval for each investor, the subordinated debt will be canceled and convertible notes will be issued for an equivalent amount. In terms of The Star's joint ventures, at 30 June 2025, the drawn debt balance of DBC was $1.4 billion. The facility has a maturity of December 2025. A condition precedent to completion of the transaction to exit DBC includes the release of Star from its parent company guarantee, relating to 50% of the DBC debt balance. The DBC transaction is targeted to complete by November 2025. Turning to the trading update slide on page 17, our performance in FY2026 so far shows July 2025 group revenue at $92.1 million and EBITDA of a loss of $7.4 million. Star Sydney July EBITDA was a loss of $4.3 million, with daily average revenue across gaming and non-gaming in line with May and June. Star Gold Coast July EBITDA was $1.6 million, above the fourth quarter 2025 average monthly EBITDA, largely driven by higher win rates and increased non-gaming revenue. While the July result shows soft trading conditions have continued, particularly at The Star Sydney, the group EBITDA performance is an improvement compared to the monthly average for the fourth quarter of FY2025. The Star Brisbane revenue in July 2025 reflects the operator fee under the DBC CMA. Following announcement of the DBC transaction, The Star will receive a fixed fee of $5 million per month for the remainder of FY2026, subject to escrow arrangements and the group remaining operator of The Star Brisbane. Turning to the final slide on new term priorities. As I mentioned at the start, we've seen a material deterioration in performance across the group over recent years, continuing into this year. Between FY2023 and FY2025, revenue is down 30% at The Star Sydney and 19% at The Star Gold Coast. At the same time, we've incurred significant costs in relation to our remediation program. As a result, EBITDA across The Star Sydney and Gold Coast has declined $260 million over the FY2023 to FY2025 period. We are working with Bally's and Investment Holdings to improve operational performance and improve market share for each of our properties. We see opportunities to increase revenue, which we believe will directly improve the operational earnings contribution. We expect this to be further supported by additional cost-out initiatives and the rolloff of remediation costs over the next 24 months. We'll be working more closely with Bally's and Investment Holdings as we move forward, and I'm pleased to also refer to the separate ASX announcement about the appointment of Bruce Mathieson Jr. to The Star Parent Company Board. Going forward, there are six near-term priorities we are focused on to enhance our financial position and improve performance. These priorities are obtaining the AUSTRAC judgment outcome to provide certainty on timing and the quantum of the penalty, addressing the financial covenant waiver requirements and an ongoing review of our capital structure, obtaining outstanding regulatory approvals for the Bally's and Investment Holdings transactions, and receiving the remaining $67 million from Bally's, completing the transaction with our joint venture partners, including the exit from DBC and the associated parent company guarantee, and consolidation of the Gold Coast assets, continuing to deliver on the remainder of The Star's remediation program in support of the group's casino licenses being restored, and driving revenue growth through customer-focused initiatives and implementing further cost out during FY2026. That concludes our presentation. Operator, I'm now open to 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. We will now pause momentarily to allow time for questions to register. Once again, if you want to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. Thank you. There are no questions on the phone line at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. McCann for closing remarks. Apologies. We've had a question register. The question comes from Rohan Sundram with MST Financial. Please go ahead.
Hi team, thank you. Sorry, I've just jumped on the call. Apologies if you've already covered this off. To what extent are you able to just please recap the extent to which mandatory carded play has impacted operations, especially in the trading update in July, the extent to which that's still having an impact? Thanks.
Yeah, so mandatory carded play and the cash limits, so we're at a $5,000 cash limit in Sydney, has impacted roughly about 17% compared to the average of where we were trading prior to it commencing on 19 August last year. The most recent update on the mandatory carded environment is we have now moved to the next phase, which includes introduction of loss limits and other components. As you know, the government has come out and confirmed a two-year deferral of a reduction to $1,000 cash limits, which is a very important initiative for us, obviously.
Thank you.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. McCann for closing remarks.
Okay, thank you for joining us, and obviously we'll take any follow-up questions that you may have, and thanks for your ongoing support.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.