Or also through the chat phone. Thanks again for joining us, and on that, I'll hand over to Paul. Thank you.
Thank you, Michael. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining Smart Parking's first half FY 2024 results conference call. Today, I'm with our CFO, Richard Ludbrook, here in Sydney, and we'll take you through the highlights of the presentation that we released to the ASX this morning, and then we will open line for questions. If we can make a start on slide 2, please, and with some key takeaways from today's presentation. SPZ is a fast-growing, profitable, and cash flow positive company that can self-fund its growth strategy. As you can see on this page, we've delivered record results for the half: revenues up 20% to AUD 26.6 million, adjusted EBITDA is up 44% to AUD 7.6 million, and margins have expanded 463 basis points to a new high of 28.4%. That's almost five times more profit than we made in the same period three years ago.
PBNs increased by 22% on the PCP. On a pro forma basis, excluding our suspended Queensland operations, PBNs grew by 29%. We closed the half of FY24 with 1,219 ANPR sites under management, which was growth of 24%. This progress gives us increased confidence in achieving our ambitious growth targets. Shareholders will remember that at the AGM last year, we brought forward the global sites target by 6 months. Today, we affirm our ambition to have 1,500 sites under management by the end of this calendar year. We can turn to page 3 now. These record results are a direct outcome of our laser-like focus on executing our growth strategy. Smart Parking's strategy is to leverage our market-leading technology and solutions, and the industry's best practice compliance standards to drive improved outcomes for parking site owners and landlords. We deliver increased compliance, revenue, and customer experience for our customers.
Our results demonstrate we are successfully leveraging our technology advantage, proven business model, and strong balance sheet to generate robust earnings growth and positive free cash flow for shareholders. We've also demonstrated we can scale profitably in multiple international markets. We've delivered a strong performance in our existing territories, including the UK, New Zealand, and Germany. At the AGM, we also flagged that SPZ is entering a new growth chapter, an inflection point where we can use the capabilities and expertise we've deployed in the UK and build new operations in constructive jurisdictions. Today, we announced the commencement of operations in Denmark. We've made a start this month. Denmark offers all the industry requirements for us to operate a successful business. It expands our total addressable market to over 150,000 sites, and I'll talk more about this exciting development a little later in the call.
Finally, we have the balance sheet and cash generation to self-fund our organic growth and complementary acquisitions. We generated AUD 4 million of free cash flow, funded AUD 3.6 million of cash investments, and closed the half with cash on the balance sheet of AUD 9.7 million. Talking of capital, since we last spoke, there have been several high-profile private equity capital deals worth over AUD 230 million in the UK private parking industry. It is encouraging to see value recognized and for others to also be bullish on the regulatory outlook and industry dynamics in the UK. We look to page 4 now. We have growing businesses in all territories outside of Australia. Page 4 highlights our progress in building scale in our selected markets.
Our focus is on building scale in these attractive territories to deliver operating leverage and free cash flow and free cash flow and our capital light and scalable model our capital light and scalable model can generate. Revenue in the UK increased by 22% to AUD 21.8 million. The UK accounts for 80% of our sites under management and 82% of the group's revenue total. We saw 14% growth in total sites to 981 and 13% growth in PBNs versus the prior comparative period. More sites under management will create increased PBNs and, in turn, generate higher revenues. Our financial model is very simple. Looking at New Zealand, the New Zealand business effectively doubled in the half. Revenue increased by 99%. We're driving a step change for site owners in New Zealand. Incumbent providers using tow trucks cannot offer the economics, technology, and data reporting advantages that we provide.
We are displacing and disrupting the industry. We now have 124 sites under management, which is up 202% on the PCP, and we delivered 113% growth in PBNs. So can this growth continue? Oh, absolutely, it can. With a total addressable market of over 3,000 sites, we're very early in our growth phase in New Zealand. I'd say exactly the same about our growth prospects in all of our territories that we currently operate. We've captured less than 1% of our addressable market, so there is enormous upside for the future. As some of you will remember, we suspended our Australian operations last year. There was a small revenue contribution in the PCP, but no revenues from operations in this half. We are having good discussions with the new Queensland Transport Minister to find the best solution for both the industry and the government.
I can't say emphatically if and when we might restart our business there, but discussions are constructive, and we're making progress, and I am optimistic. Added to this, discussions with the ministers in the UK and the new civil servants are also positive and progressing well. At the last communication, they provided provisional dates for the new consultation document to be published between March and May of this year. However, given the potential general election coming, these dates may change. I will, of course, keep shareholders informed of the situation as it evolves. In Germany, we have moved from well beyond proof of concept and commencement. We now focus on accelerating growth and building scale. Revenue surpassed AUD 1 million, and from a low base last year, PBNs were up over 2,000%, and revenues increased by 1,600%. 43 operating sites is simply a start.
We have a great team over there, a differentiated offering, and a brand that stands for quality and compliance. Given it's Europe's largest market with around 90,000 sites, I expect growth for many years to come. And finally, as I mentioned earlier, we've put a flag in the ground in Denmark. So why Denmark? It's an attractive market. Through accreditation, we can access driver data, we can deploy our technology efficiently, and, like in New Zealand, we're disrupting first-generation manual incumbents. The market at around 10,000 sites is also 3x the total addressable market of New Zealand. We've recruited the managing director to lead operations. We've put in place an organizational structure, and we're currently building the operations team to support the growth. I do look forward to reporting on our progress through the year in Denmark.
We can look at slide 5, and before I hand over to Richard to take you through the financials, I'll call out our M&A track record. Park Innovation is the most recent acquisition, which we completed in July last year. Since we acquired the business, we have worked hard to integrate the operations and also to realize the synergies identified during due diligence. With the integration now complete, we expect to see the full benefit of these initiatives in the second half of FY24. We have a proven capability in identifying suitable bolt-on acquisitions, conducting detailed due diligence, aligning the businesses with our values and culture, and leveraging our assets to deliver profitable growth. What do we look for when we assess the acquisitions? Well, our disciplines are clear. The business must be in our core operations. It must be a geography where we already have a proven business.
We have to see the opportunity to utilize our technology in order to drive a better outcome for clients, and we must be able to add value to the business overall by putting Smart Parking's name above the door. It's not just what the acquisition does for us, but also what we can do for it. Acquisitions will continue to complement our organic growth, and we will remain highly selective and disciplined in our approach. I shall now hand over to Richard to talk you through the financials over the next few minutes.
Thanks, Paul. I'll start with slide 7, where you will see the group achieve record results in H1 FY24. Earnings per share: 0.66 cents per share was at 20% on the PCP. Excluding non-recurring and non-operating items, EPS was at 61% on the PCP. This is a pleasing result given that Germany is margin dilutive while the business builds scale. Total revenue of AUD 26.6 million is at 20% on H1 FY23. This was the result of a 22% increase in parking breach notices driven by organic growth in sites under management across all territories, with the exception of Australia, where Queensland operations are currently paused. Paul will provide a regulatory update later in the call. Further detail on the revenue increases included later in the deck. Overhead is up 20% compared to PCP.
This is a result of increased activity, ongoing expansion into newer territories, including Germany and New Zealand, and the acquisition of Park Innovation along with cost increases. Adjusted EBITDA of AUD 7.6 million is at 44% on the PCP. The company continues to pocket deferred tax assets related to losses carried forward in New Zealand, and the company has a further unrecognised deferred tax asset of AUD 2.5 million related to losses in New Zealand, which it expects to recognise in the future. Slide 8 shows the breakdown of the 20% increase in revenue. The company continues with its strategy of expanding into countries where there is a suitable regulatory framework, and the company recently established operations in Denmark. In the last three years, the company has established parking management operations in New Zealand and Germany, and both of these businesses are growing.
The New Zealand business had revenue of AUD 2.1 million up 99% on PCP, and Germany, including Park Innovation, of AUD 1.1 million up from AUD 62,000 in the PCP. Just a reminder, the German business was established in early 2022, and Park Innovation was acquired in July 2023. The rate of growth in New Zealand and Germany is accelerating. In the 12 months to December 2022, 38 sites were added in these territories, and a further 116 ANPR sites were installed in New Zealand and Germany in the 12 months to 31 December 2023. Historically, the majority of the New Zealand parking management contracts were three years.
The company has recently increased the term for new contracts from three years to five years. Following a review of competitors, parking breach notice charges in the New Zealand business were recently increased for new sites from AUD 65 per breach to AUD 85 per breach.
Revenue per breach will increase by over 30% applying similar payment ratios. In 2024, the company, in conjunction with its customers, will look to increase the parking breach notice to AUD 85 on existing sites. Had this change been in place for all customers in H1, the revenue would have been approximately AUD 2.7 million, which is 30% higher than what was reported, and the EBITDA would have approximately doubled to AUD 1.1 million. Australia, up until the pause, was also growing strongly. While the company continues to enforce manually on Queensland sites, revenue reduced from AUD 1 million in the PCP to AUD 44,000 in H1 FY24. Park Innovation will see the benefit of changes made since acquisition during the second half of the financial year. Paul will talk more about the substantial runway we have in all markets, which will power future growth.
Slide 9 shows the movement in the group's operating expenses. Overheads of AUD 11.5 million were up 20% on the PCP. As I said earlier, this is a result of increased activity, ongoing expansions into the newer territories, and the acquisition of Park Innovation along with cost increases. Overheads in Germany are up AUD 0.4 million, or by 50%, as the business was scaled to take advantage of the substantial opportunity in Germany.
The overheads also included AUD 0.4 million related to Park Innovation, which was acquired during July 2023. With the pause in Queensland operations, the company reduced its workforce, reducing personnel costs by AUD 500,000 compared to the PCP. Personnel costs increase in the UK. With inflationary pressure, there have been significant increases in the minimum wage, with the next increase of 9.8% scheduled for April. Slide 10 shows the group's revenue and Adjusted EBITDA broken down by half.
This highlights the revenue growth and earnings growth and highlights the operating leverage with the EBITDA margin continuing to expand. Germany remains margin diluted given its still loss-making. The EBITDA margin in H1 FY24 was 28.4% at 463 basis points on the PCP. Slide 11 shows the group's cash decrease by AUD 1 million to AUD 9.7 million. The company made a substantial investment in future growth, with AUD 4.3 million spent on CapEx and the acquisition of Park Innovation. This spend will lead to future revenue and earnings growth. CapEx spends were lower in H1 than the PCP. In late FY22, with global supply chain issues, we held higher levels of ANPR cameras and pay and display machines to ensure we could continue winning in installing new sites. This equipment was paid for in early H1 FY23. Obviously, we haven't been installing sites in Queensland.
Just a reminder that CapEx isn't included in free cash flow as it relates to future growth rather than made towards CapEx. The company's strong cash flow enables it to continue to explore new growth opportunities, which Paul will speak to. Slide 12 shows the group maintains strong balance sheet and is well placed to fund organic growth, expansion into new territories such as Denmark, and further acquisitions. The company will be debt-free in September 2024 when the UK loan is due to be fully repaid. Just a reminder, annual repayments on that loan are AUD 900,000. Moving to slide 13, revenue in the parking management division increased 25% to AUD 25 million. The company had 1,219 sites under management, up 24% from December 2022. Adjusted EBITDA is AUD 7.7 million with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 26.6%.
As I said earlier, Germany is margin dilutive, generating an EBITDA loss of AUD 1 million in H1. We remain optimistic about the outlook for this division given the potential in the core U.K. market and continued expansion in other markets. I'll now hand back to Paul to discuss the business update.
Thank you. Excellent. So if we look now, if we go forward, I want to jump straight to slides 16, 17, and 18. These slides show the lead metrics that we update shareholders regularly with at each presentation. As highlighted earlier in the presentation, we're seeing growth across all metrics. To me, these slides highlight the importance of an effective sales strategy and execution-focused operational teams. As mentioned earlier in the presentation, the business model is simple. We win the sites, operate them effectively to create the PBNs, and generate revenue. It's clear that we have a good model when we look at slide 18 and the ability we have to open new territories and generate revenue relatively quickly. I look forward to being able to update shareholders in the future with continued growth in all territories and also some new ones.
If we now go to slide 19, please, this slide 19 is an update on the potential regulatory changes in the UK. As I've highlighted before now, SPZ is supportive of the majority of the changes that have been proposed as we want to see a better regulation across the parking marketplace. Positive and ongoing dialogue with the UK government is a step in the right direction for the industry. It is also encouraging to see other areas in the UK adopting higher PBN values, which further demonstrates the correct deterrent level of GBP 100. Adding this data to the extent of information already provided to the government, the industry is positive and optimistic of achieving the outcome we want. The last point on this slide reinforces the industry confidence that the right outcome can be achieved.
The recent private equity investments and interest in the private parking assets highlight the attractive nature of the market and the future growth that we see. This is a good sign for SPZ. We turn now to the final slide. I'll close with our key priorities and focus points for the remainder of FY24. SPZ is clearly performing strongly. We're pleased to deliver record results and continue to execute well. That momentum sets us up well for the second half and beyond. Our key focus is to deliver 1,500 sites by December 2024. That will significantly broaden our base, strengthen our business, and increase our earnings power. We will continue to build scale in existing territories and leverage our capabilities, expertise, and technologies into new markets. With less than 1% capture of the total addressable market, we have years of growth ahead of us.
I believe the industry outlook in the UK is improving, and the injection of private equity capital would support that too. We're having good discussions, as I mentioned a moment ago, and with confidence we will find a fair and reasonable outcome for all. We are absolutely aligned with the government here. We want a compliant and sustainable industry that provides good outcomes for all stakeholders. And finally, we'll continue to complement our organic growth with disciplined and selective acquisitions. We can consolidate the industry, raise compliance standards, improve outcomes for site holders, and generate good returns for our shareholders. With our balance sheet and positive cash flow, we will well capitalized to take advantage of the organic and inorganic opportunities as they arise. That concludes my presentation today. We can now open the line for some questions.
As we mentioned earlier on, you can either post a question through the chat function or maybe raise your hand through Zoom, and we can cover those questions as we go.
Okay. There's a question here, Paul. So could future reporting not only include the number of sites but also the number of parking spaces under management to provide shareholders or owners an idea of the likely increase in PBNs? Thank you for the excellent progress. Regards, John.
Excellent. Shareholders since 2011. Fantastic. I mean, look, the relevance of, say, number of spaces in a car park is actually quite low, right? And what drives the PBN performance or what drives compliance and non-compliance, if you like, is really the location. Where is the site located? What's it next to? What's the reason for the parking pressure being created at that site? So is it close to a travel hub, transportation environment? Is it close to hospitality venues or entertainment venues, things like that? There's always a reason as to why our customer, the landowner, has an issue or a compliance enforcement issue on that site, and that's what we're there to resolve. So it's not so much the number of bays that drives that non-compliance. It's really where it is.
That said, we can certainly look to try and add a bit more detail, granular detail, and we'll try and do that for the next reporting season.
Okay, Paul. Question from Stella. With increasing private equity investment in the U.K. parking management, have you seen increasing competition for new sites?
Sorry, can you repeat that again?
Yep. With increasing private equity investment in U.K. parking management, have you seen increasing competition for new sites?
No, not really. I mean, let's not forget, private equity have been in this industry for a long time, with owning ParkingEye since 2018. There's been other assets that have been bought and sold by private equity over the years, so it's nothing new. I guess what is new is that it's obviously new firms getting involved, and it's a time when some people are uncertain around the parking changes and Parking Bill, what have you. But it really says to me that private equity are getting into this space and making some significant investments. They've obviously done their work on the Parking Bill, and they understand it, and they are seeing it as a lower risk. So from that perspective, I think it's really pleasing to see that external investment coming into the marketplace. But no, it's a UK's competitive, Stella.
So I think from that perspective, it's always going to be competition. We just have to keep being the best we can be, keep having a great sales team, good differentiating technology products, which we already have, and work hard. I suppose that's the only excuse to winning.
Okay. Next question, Paul, from Shara. What's the nature of the personnel changes in the UK and Australia?
Well, obviously, Australia, we've made some significant change last year with the operations on hold. So we've obviously resized that business significantly in the last 12 months. And of course, if things change or as and when things change in Queensland, then obviously that number of heads will change again. In the U.K., I mean, not a lot of change other than just adding we've added a number of heads. Well, we've changed the sales team quite significantly in the last six months. We added a new sales director in July of last year who has come from another parking industry background, done a great job. He's made a lot of changes, which have been positive. We've added capability and obviously added some heads. So that's what we've seen, that change in sales focus.
But really, I think that Richard highlighted in his points, Shara, that there's been the changes to the sort of National Living Wage or minimum wage, if you like, which has gone up in April last year and it goes up again in April this year, which are things that we can't control. We don't have that many people on the National Living Wage, but it's a 10% increase. So those are the key things, Shara, I would say. So nothing beyond that.
Another question from Shara, which I can answer. Can you talk about the AUD 0.9 million cost taken below the EBITDA line and what this relates to? So there's about AUD 0.5 million that largely relates to professional fees, and that includes due diligence costs relating to completed acquisitions and also an acquisition that we didn't complete in Germany. There's also some professional costs related to the regulatory activities that are going on in the UK. And then finally, there's some foreign exchange, which relates to intra-group funding. Okay, question from Annabel. Can you talk to what you are seeing in the site pipeline today on a by-region view and on the back of changes in your sales strategy or personnel in the UK?
Yeah, we can. So I mean, what I would say is we've been very good. One of our strengths has been certainly over the last 6, 7 years is to really focus on those independent landlords, independent managing agents, those sorts of people. And we're picking up a lot of customers every month. People who own singular sites or might own 3 or 4 sites or 5 sites. We don't have that many of the kind of major kind of multiple customers, if you like, customers with 100, 200 sites. We've been working very hard. And David, our new sales director in the U.K., one of his key focus areas is to improve on those multiple-type customers. Now, we've stayed away from the retail side of things and the larger retailers, Tesco's, Asda, Sainsbury's, because it's very difficult to work with them in a profitable and sustainable way.
So we've stayed away from those customers. However, fast food, we are accelerating into particularly in New Zealand. We're winning a number of fast food locations as well as the UK. We've done well with KFC in the past, for example. We've done very well recently with a delivery service business similar to TNT and DHL, who've got over 130 sites in the UK. So we've managed to pick up a couple of sites with them. They've gone through the proof of concept. They're happy, and we're now starting to add more sites to that account. So we're really focused on adding these kind of larger-style customers, but also not forgetting where our sweet spot is, right? And there's lots and lots of these independent landowners, independent managing agents who have four, five, maybe 10 locations. So that's really the focus. And that's being transferred across all territories, Annabel.
So in Germany, for example, we've picked up a number of Aldi sites. We're actually bidding with Lidl right now for a larger number of sites. We've been successful with fast food, in particular Burger King, with some of their franchisees. So we've got seven Burger King sites now. So those are the type of customers we're winning in Germany as well as those independent landowners.
Okay. Owen Siviour, question. Not sure whether you want to take Stella and ask the question.
Good day, guys. Well done on the continued execution. I guess the question for me is, you set a target of 1,500 sites by December this year. You're kind of tracking at the low 1,200s at the moment to adding nearly 300 sites. You definitely talked about your pipeline during the call. Just to kind of understand, that kind of indicates 23% site growth. A, is there any expected degradation in the revenue per site? And B, are you expecting your OpEx to exceed your revenue growth over the next 12 months, or do you expect to increment the margins around that 50% to hold?
If I take the so just the first question, it was around about the site acquisition timeline. Is that the first part of the question?
Well, it's more around is there an expectation around OpEx increase in this calendar year to achieve that site guidance of 1,500 above your revenue growth?
Yeah. No, if you take the existing business, we wouldn't expect to see rapid growth and overheads. We've scaled up in Germany, obviously, based on the size of the market. I mean, the one place, obviously, where you will see some incremental costs will be Denmark, where we've recently launched. But other than that, we shouldn't see significant increases in overheads.
I think when we talk about site acquisition, this is if we look at what we do, we are a sales business, right? We've got some great technology that differentiates us in the market, in the number of markets we operate. It makes us different. Of course, then it's about how do you go about selling and winning the locations, right? That's number one. So I think our sales strategy, we've been very clear with it and how it works. Really, we focus our salespeople heavily on that kind of new business, cold-calling type environment. We've been very good at it. It's accelerating. As Richard pointed out in his words, it's absolutely accelerating across New Zealand and Germany right now. The UK is always going to be a challenge because it's very competitive, but we win, right? Why do we win?
We win because we've got good people. We win because we've got a good offering. We win because we've got good technology. And we win because we deliver great service and get good referrals. So are we going to meet that number? I'm very confident in meeting it. I can see things going very well in New Zealand over the next 12 months and also Germany. And of course, the U.K. will continue to do what it does. And as long as the team work hard and execute and deliver, then we'll absolutely meet that number. And I guess it's important to remember that we talked a lot about, obviously, costs and operational costs have gone up with inflation and that kind of good stuff.
But despite the increasing costs and despite the kind of increased investment in scaling up a place like Germany, we're still expanding the EBITDA margins, right? They've gone up by 4.6%. So from that perspective, despite the increase in costs, the revenue is growing, the business is growing, and we're seeing that margin also expand because we're getting that scale. And that's the important thing to take away from this, that scale really will drive the margin expansion.
I guess one final question for me just to understand. So in 12 months' time, should we expect any new regions? I know you've entered Denmark now, but are you seeking out new regions in the next year?
Absolutely. We're still looking for the right regulatory environments. I mean, it's very important to get that right. I mean, Denmark, we've looked at for quite some time. And just again, we've been observers. And of course, we've opened up other territories, and we want to get those right, which is what we're doing in Germany, of course. Let's not forget New Zealand was a new territory back in 2021, and now it's delivering great revenue and strong margins. So that's where it can go. Now, I see Denmark as very similar to New Zealand. And the reason for that is because, A, the regulatory environment works for us. We can access keeper details. We can access keeper details at a very, very low cost. In fact, it's zero because as long as you've got the right accreditations, which we now have.
The cost of sending a PCN is very low because we can email the PBNs to people via a kind of people have a government mailbox or a government email address that we can email to. So that's obviously a bit lower cost than other areas. The breach value is significantly higher in Denmark. It's somewhere between, depending on the type of site, somewhere between 700-800 DKK, which is AUD 150. So if you start adding those things together of higher breach value, high compliance, low cost of issuance, low cost of acquisition of details, now, some of those costs can be offset by it is a higher cost to hire people. So people cost more in that part of the world. But it's got all the right hallmarks of a fantastic market for us, and it's adding another 10,000 sites to our TAM, our total addressable market.
So we're excited by it. We've got a great guy over in the UK there who's obviously not been with us very long, but he comes with good experience, good background, good pedigree. We believe we can add something different to that market and grow that business.
Okay. Next question, Paul, from Stella, which I will answer. How should we think about the TIP segment's license revenue derived from the parking management division? Okay. So the license fee equates to approximately 9 cents of the revenue in the UK parking management business. Next question from Sean. Going by your figures, UK PBNs are GBP 65 each. When do you expect the regulations allowing this to change to increase to GBP 100 will be resolved?
I guess so Sean, so we issue tickets. So today in the UK, most of our sites, we issue tickets at GBP 100, but it gets reduced to GBP 60 if you pay within 14 days. So some tickets are paid at that GBP 60 rate, some are paid at GBP 100, and some are paid at an even higher rate because they get passed to a debt recovery agent who adds GBP 70, and we get GBP 35 of that GBP 70. So it's a range of prices. And some of our sites, we are issuing tickets at much lower value. It really depends on the customer, but GBP 100 is the maximum that the PBN can go to. When do I expect the ongoing parking bill discussions to be resolved? It's a great question.
I mean, as I said in my presentation, the latest correspondence we've had from the government and the conversation we've had with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is they expect to release the next consultation between March and May. Now, only six weeks ago, they were absolutely going to be releasing this consultation in March. And so they've added that extra sort of two months of buffer. Now, I suspect there's a good chance they don't release that in that timeline because there's a potential election coming up. And if you it takes a long time to get these consultations organized. They have to run for three months. Then there's a kind of evaluation period. And then once they get the code of practice they're happy with, it then has to sit before Parliament for 40 days, 40 sitting days, and then put into law.
So there's still a long way to go. And if an election gets announced, which will be probably October or November, then all bets are off and things, it just goes to the back of the queue again. So I can't sit here and say it's definitely going to be resolved in the next three months because I don't know. What I do know is that the longer this goes on, the better it is for us because as inflation has been growing, that deterrent level of GBP 100 is becoming far more commonplace, right? So other infringement notices or penalty charges or PBN charges are already at that GBP 100 mark. Particularly in Scotland, there's now two infringements at GBP 100. The parking on street, if you overstay, is GBP 100. And if you park on pavements now in court, it's GBP 100.
There's lots of other examples of where the deterrent is GBP 100. So it feels to me the longer it goes on, the chances of any change or any change from status quo is very low. So to me, I'm very optimistic. The industry is very optimistic we're going to get what we believe is right. And I guess we'll find out if they do release their consultation next month or April or May. But the longer it goes on, I think any potential change, the risk of that diminishes. And let's not forget, private equity investment, these people who make these investments aren't silly, right? They're not stupid people. They've obviously done their work on that risk analysis and that environment in the UK, and if they still decided to go ahead and spend over $200 million.
So to me, when that's happening in the industry, you've got people who've done an awful lot of work and understand the risk and really analyze what they're buying and analyze the risk around that, and they're still prepared to take that risk. So that says to me it gives me a lot of confidence. It gives me a lot of confidence talking to the ministers and also the civil servants involved. So from that perspective, it just feels like the risk is diminishing the longer it goes on. But again, we never know, and we have to just wait and see if they actually do go ahead and publish the consultation.
Okay. So James has a question. Do you want to take stuff off mute, James?
Yeah. Thanks, Richard. Thanks, Paul. Just back to that question around the acquisitions in the UK, Horizon Parking, APCOA Parking, Intelli-Park, they've all been acquired by private equity, and they're all similarly sized in terms of the number of ANPR tickets that they issue each year. What do you think explains this uptick in M&A? And have you been approached as one of the last big players left who have not been bid for?
What do I think is driving it? I think it's an understanding of the regulatory environment, a better understanding. So there's been a lot more conversation of people really understanding what does it mean if things go ahead, if anything potentially changes, what's it going to do to that particular business they're looking at. I think that's what it is, James, that people have got more understanding. I also think there's a kind of cycle here, right? So if we go back five years, six years, there was quite a bit of activity from private equity and M&A activity in the space. So I suspect a number of those assets have come to their horizon points in the fund where they need to move on again. I think there's a bit of that happening.
But also, I think private equity, they really like this space, have done for years because it's high margin, it's cash-generative, and they're good assets that you can grow. And there's lots of runway for growth as well on the table with a number of sites' potential, as well as not just in the UK, but that kind of pan-European opportunity that's in front of people like ourselves, for example. Have we been approached? No. No. And frankly, we're at the point where we want to grow Smart Parking, and certainly our large shareholders. I'm in conversation with them. And also as a board, we're focused on growing. We're focused on growing our business, our group, and focused on adding new territories, focused on complementing our organic growth with other acquisitions as well. So we're very much in the mindset of growing.
We want to grow for a long period of time, and we have a long runway ahead of us with this business. And that's the exciting bit.
Just sorry, could I just quick on the Denmark as well, you mentioned favorable regulations, low cost, and low cost of accessing the vehicle keeper details, and then a high ticket value. Are there any other markets in Europe or elsewhere that have those hallmarks?
There's not many that are that good. There's others that have, they're lower cost, if you like, but they're also lower-value tickets. But let's not forget, I mean, look at New Zealand, for example. Actually, it's a low-cost access to keeper details there. And the breach is lower, though, right? So it's probably one of the lowest breaches we have in the group, but that's now increasing. Yeah? But of course, we work with a couple of partners who are also pan-European in the sort of services they provide, and that's how we do our research and then go and look at those markets and really try and understand it. But getting that kind of magic trifecta of low costs, access to details, low costs of access and issuance, and high value, breach is not that many of them. But we've been very keen looking at, for example, Austria.
It's quite interesting, but it's, again, high cost of access and lower breach value. Switzerland's quite similar to that, and that varies throughout the different regions or cantons, as they're called. Italy is interesting to look at, but payment ratios are very, very low. So why would we do that? It doesn't make sense to go to Italy or Spain because people don't pay their tickets. So yeah, the northern Europe I mean, other Scandinavian countries are quite interesting, Norway and Sweden, for example. So those are the areas we've been looking very closely at, and we'll continue to do some evaluation. But again, we haven't got a bottomless pit of money. We have to do things carefully and thoughtfully and responsibly.
We want to keep opening new territories, but have to do it one step at a time to make sure that we get where we're going or where we want to go.
Excellent. Okay. Next question. Queensland's parking spots included in the 1,500 goal. Okay. So the 1,219 sites that we have include the 71 of our existing sites in Queensland. So those are effectively in an active state, but obviously can be turned on if and when regulations change. The 1,500-site target, though, includes, assumes no new sites in Queensland. Next question from Nick. Do you have any regulatory concerns for the New Zealand market? Is there any worry about similar changes to those experienced in Queensland?
No, I guess is the short answer to that. I mean, one thing to say about New Zealand is a code of practice in place, much like we have in the U.K. and much like Germany and also Denmark, which is essentially a kind of rules of engagement that private parking operators have to sign up to to ensure that you do things fair, you're fair and reasonable in your actions, okay? Now, we believe we are fair and reasonable. We've had that tested a number of times with kind of tribunals where people aren't happy with a particular breach. If we've declined their appeal for whatever reason, when we've been to a tribunal, we haven't lost one, and they're backed up by the tribunal. So from that perspective, no, I'm not concerned about that at this stage. But you've always got to be mindful that we operate correctly.
And that's one thing I would say at Smart Parking is that we focus on compliance being obviously the number one thing, but also high standards in that compliance to ensure that we are operating correctly, fair, and reasonably, right? As long as we can say we're doing that the whole time, then there's no reason why we should be concerned about any regulatory issues. Queensland was the outlier because there was no code of practice in place, right? So no kind of rules of engagement for other private parking operators. And that's one of the issues that has been, we've really highlighted. And that's why whenever we look at any new territories now, we're really focused on that code of practice and the right regulatory environment being absolutely in our sweet spot and where we need to be.
For example, there's lots of potential opportunity in other countries like the U.S., for example, but there's 50 different ways of doing things in America, right? Even in every state, there's different kind of counties and areas, and they have different rules themselves. Again, when we look at these territories and evaluate them, we work hard to truly understand it, to get a legal opinion that says, "That is specifically how you will operate in this particular region, and this is the potential risk for change," right? If it comes within our tolerances, then we'll take a closer look. If it doesn't, then we move on. Yeah, we have to be very careful about which ones we look at and secure.
Okay. Next question from Jasmine. Should regulatory focus become increasingly adverse? How difficult would it be for SPZ to transition to gated systems?
We all want to go for a gated system. That would be the wrong thing to do. You could still obviously manage the car park through technology, through number plate recognition. You'd have to change the business model if you had no kind of regulatory way of accessing those keeper details. What I would say is around the world, around the parking industry, gated solutions are being removed, right? You will still see them at the airport, for example, like a kind of barrier solution or a large shopping center like a big Westfield or something. The majority, and what I'm seeing in this industry and around a lot of territories, is people want to remove barriers, to go into barrier-less systems. It's all done through number plate recognition and pay by phone and those sorts of things.
So there's very much a move towards removing the barrier. And also, if we talk to a lot of our customers, they don't want to put barriers on the car parks because it's a barrier to entry, right? Literally, it is a barrier, right? And so, of course, you're stopping people from coming into your car park. It's like, "How do I get more customers in faster, right, and get them off the road into my car park so they can use my shop, my product, or service?" And so I don't believe going to a barrier solution or a gated solution is the way forward. If there was any particular change, we would look at a different type of model. But right now, we're confident that the regulatory changes aren't. There's no kind of contagion, if you like, from Queensland. There's nothing adverse in other territories right now.
And let's be clear, the difference between the regulatory conversation in the U.K. and Queensland is the U.K. is like, "We just want to know how much we charge." That's it. You can do what you do. We see the value in what you do. We respect and want you to do what you do, but the value is what we might look to they're investigating. Whereas in Queensland, it's like, we're not sure about the data issue, and how do we manage that?" So two very, very different issues. But no, I'm not concerned that other territories will be an issue.
Okay. Lofton has a question. Do you want to unmute yourself, Lofton?
Hey, guys. Can you hear me okay?
Yep.
Perfect. I just had a question about the New Zealand margins. It looks like they're down year-on-year for the half. Could you just talk through that? Is there going to be an unwind in the second half? How do I think about that?
Yeah. Historically, I guess New Zealand was primarily a technology business. As the parking management business in New Zealand has grown, some of the technology staff have transitioned across from the technology business into the parking management business.
Okay. Thanks.
Okay. Any other questions?
If you can take us to the final slide again, please, Stacey. Lovely. Thank you. I mean, I guess there's no further questions. If there's no further questions, I'll just finish by reiterating what our priorities are for the remainder of the year and the fact that we're focusing on our key focus areas, if you like. I mean, as I said earlier on, we are performing strongly. I think it's clear from these numbers that we're performing strongly. And we're pleased to deliver the record results, and we will absolutely continue to execute well. And that momentum does set us up for the second half and well beyond that. Our key focus for this year is to deliver the 1,500 sites by the end of this calendar year, by December 31st, 2024, which will absolutely broaden our base, strengthen our business, and increase our earnings power.
We will continue to build scale in the existing territories and leverage the capabilities, expertise, and technologies into new markets. With less than 1% capture of our total addressable market, we have a long runway for growth ahead of us. I do believe the industry outlook in the U.K. is improving, and the injection of private equity capital would support that as well. We're having good discussions with the ministers, as I said a moment ago, and we are confident that we'll find a fair and reasonable outcome for all. We're absolutely aligned with the government. We want high standards. We want a sustainable industry that provides good outcomes for all stakeholders. As I said earlier, we will continue to complement our organic growth with disciplined and selective acquisitions. We can consolidate this industry.
We can raise compliance standards, improve the outcomes for site holders, and generate good returns for our shareholders. We obviously have the balance sheet to cope with that, with positive cash flow and cash in the bank that we'll capitalize to take advantage of organic and inorganic opportunities as they arise. I'd like to thank everybody for joining today. I think it's been a good, productive conversation. We are on the road for the next three days. If there's any other further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you very much for joining, and we'll see you all again soon. Thank you.