Thank you. Good morning and welcome to the WOTSO Annual Results Briefing for the year. I'm Jessie Glew, CEO of WOTSO, and I'm pleased to be joined today by our Chairman and my father, Seph Glew, and our CFO, Chris Williams. Chris will take you through this year's results in more detail shortly and will leave time for questions at the end. I've gradually made my way to page four. The commercial property model, the way we measure value, the assumptions about how and where people should work, WOTSO isn't chasing shiny towers. We're not wooing enterprise tenants with beige lobbies and long-term leases. We're rebuilding the backbone of work, neighborhood- by- neighborhood, space- by- space. We've turned underused buildings into thriving spaces, brought life back to forgotten corners, proved that localized community-powered flex space isn't just viable, it's scalable, profitable, and it's needed.
We dropped property from our name on purpose. This wasn't a rebrand. It was a rejection of the idea that value is measured in rent roll and square meter rates alone. We're not just landlords. We're operators, and we know that real value comes from activation, not just acquisition. WOTSO represents a new model for work and a new use for space. People want more than a desk. They want connection, flexibility, autonomy, and purpose. We're giving it to them. Whether it's in a converted warehouse, a repurposed retail strip, a micro coworking space in the middle of the CBD, a shopping center, or a regional space in far North New Zealand, we are not growing for growing's sake. We are growing sustainably, showing that local economies matter. That flexible, inclusive, decentralized work is better for people, for business, and for the planet.
WOTSO isn't here to fit into the old playbook. In the past 12 months, WOTSO's revenue is up 14%. We've opened five new locations and welcomed over 150 new members. We have three additional locations in the pipeline due to open by the end of 2025, and a number of other opportunities we are working through. I've now moved to page five. This has been our first full year where we own, operate, and manage our portfolio, and the first in some time without significant one-off transactions impacting the numbers. That's allowed us to sharpen the focus of our reporting. On page six, you'll see we are now emphasizing the operating business, which accounts for 68% of revenue rather than just the property portfolio. We've also moved from reporting SFO to underlying EBITDA because it more aligns with the reporting of an operating business.
I'd particularly draw your attention to page 14 of the annual report, where we've set out how our funds are being deployed, and Chris will go through that further with a bit more detail later in our presentation. On page seven, for the first time, we've also shared where we see the business heading over the next five years, along with more detail on our startup investment. I'm especially proud of our investment into Bubba Desk, the coworking childcare concept. Having had my own daughter just 12 months ago, I've met tests that this concept empowers parents to build their careers while staying close to their children. On the technology side, page eight, our investment in Hamlet, WOTSO's proprietary management platform, continues to accelerate.
Software can sometimes feel like a black hole, but when you're building tools that improve your own operations and can be commercialized for others, it's a powerful combination. I read recently that enterprise SaaS is dying. Micro SaaS built in-house will replace it. Hamlet feels like proof we're on the right path. Turning to page nine, our portfolio is also maturing. Same location RevPad is up 4% to $367 per desk, with 12 new locations added in the past 24 months. Our mature sites are still carrying the weight of our younger ones, but as our network grows, the impact of those early stage sites will reduce, and we expect to see that maturity come through in the result. Over the last few years, we've proven that flexible workspace is more than just a trend. It's a structural shift in the ways people and businesses operate.
From FY2023-FY 2025, we've delivered consistent revenue growth of more than 11% annually, and as our pipeline of new locations matures, we're confident in sustaining that momentum. The strategy driving this is pretty straightforward. Continue expanding across Australia and New Zealand with around six new locations each year, while ensuring our existing spaces mature and deliver strong organic growth in RevPad. Importantly, we are also investing in ancillary services which strengthen our offer to members and diversify our income. What underpins our confidence is the scale of the opportunity ahead. The flexible workspace market in Australia and New Zealand is forecast to grow somewhere between 5%- 10% annually, and WOTSO is well placed to capture that growth. We've built strong relationships with national landlords, we have a proven operating model, and we're supported by a mix of funding from landlord contributions, operating cash, and debt.
In short, we're not chasing growth for growth's sake. We're building a platform that scales sustainably, delivers predictable cash flows, and positions WOTSO as a leading operator of community-driven flex space. Before handing over to Chris to talk through the numbers in detail, I want to acknowledge the effort of the WOTSO team. I'm proud of what we've achieved this year, and I'm even more excited about what the next 12 months will bring. Chris, over to you.
Thank you, Jessie. Good morning, everyone. I'm happy to present WOTSO's operational and financial results for the 30 June 2025 year. As we turn to page 12, from an operational perspective, fiscal 2025 has really been about laying the groundwork and executing on our growth strategy. We continued establishing market evidence of those WOTSO locations opened during fiscal 2024, announced the opening of five new locations during fiscal 2025, and built a pipeline that will see us deliver three more confirmed locations in 2026, with an eye to securing at least another three locations before the end of fiscal 2026. The opening of five new WOTSO locations during the year has increased our desk inventory by over 500- 7,800 desks available for sale each month.
With four of these locations opening in Q4, the incremental increase in desk inventory has not yet been met with commensurate increase in revenues, as these locations are yet to ramp up. As a result of this surge in desk inventory in Q4, portfolio-wide RevPad has dropped marginally to $359 a desk. Carving aside these new locations out of 2025, we have seen a 4% increase in same location RevPad to $367 a desk through better pricing and growth in ancillary services like virtual offices, parking, and meeting room income, which grew 11% during the year.
Of the five new locations opened during the year, two of these locations are in wholly owned properties of WOTSO, Belmont in the suburbs of Auckland, New Zealand, a property that we acquired during fiscal 2024, and WOTSO Jamison Town in our existing Penrith property, where we saw an opportunity to expand the WOTSO footprint and capitalize on growing demand in Western Sydney. During the year, we also JV'd with law firm Speirs Ryan to acquire a 50% share of our first investment in the Melbourne market, and soon after, opened our first WOTSO flex space in Victoria. New locations in North Sydney and Cogro round out our new openings and are both lease locations on favorable percentage of turnover lease arrangements.
Much like portfolio-wide RevPad, our average occupancy rate for the flex space business has dropped marginally by 2%- 78% off the back of increased desk inventory in Q4. However, importantly of note, flex space membership levels have remained relatively stable year over year, highlighting the resiliency and consistency of our product despite the month-to-month nature of our business model. Moving to page 13 and looking at the financial results for the 2025 year in more detail, as I walk through these results, there are three key themes that we will focus on – the continued execution of our strategy to grow the WOTSO flex space business, how new startups and developing WOTSO locations impact our statutory bottom line, and the impact coworking subscription models like our WOTSO flex space business have on our property valuations.
Starting at the top, fiscal 2025 has been the first full year where WOTSO has been able to focus solely on a single agenda, our flex space business, and this is reflected in the results. Flex space sales have increased 6% to just under $32 million, and this has been the primary driver for our growth in total revenues to $47 million, a 5% increase. The increase in revenues is largely a result of flex space locations that were opened in fiscal 2024 and that have started maturing, specifically our Robina, Liverpool, Blacktown, Botany, Toowoomba, and Cremorne locations. These six locations sat at an average of 64% occupancy in June 2024 and have increased to 79% at June 2025, while delivering further sales of $2.7 million to our top line.
Despite much of our discussion today focusing on our expansion and investment in the rollout of five new locations this year, with only opening these sites in Q4, these new locations have not yet provided much meaningful contribution to top line sales. Like we have seen with the likes of the locations I mentioned earlier, Robina, Blacktown, Botany, Toowoomba, Cremorne, and Liverpool, we are excited to see what fiscal 2025 new locations can add next year. Our growth of the flex space business through the lease portfolio has targeted turnover-based leases, which carry a low base rent component. This allows our WOTSO location to scale efficiently and helps manage our risk profile.
As a result of this, as we see movement in our flex space sales, we will see similar directional movement in our rent costs to external landlords, and this is what has largely increased our cost of sales to $29 million over the year, with rent costs increasing 18%, while other operating costs have only increased 5%. Our overhead costs have decreased 17% to $8 million, reflecting a full year post the internalization of management in 2024 and the removal of the historical third-party management fees. Despite the significant drop in overhead costs, our overhead continues to sit at a sustainable level that can absorb further growth of the flex space business without requiring much additional support. The result of all of this is a 14% increase in underlying EBITDA to $9.8 million.
After net financing costs of $5.5 million, together with revaluation gains and losses, depreciation, and the impact of the leasing accounting standard, AASB 16, we've reported a statutory pre-tax loss for the year of $4.4 million. While our underlying results are strong and reflect our strategic focus on growing through the flex space business, these statutory results are largely depressed due to the impact early-term lease WOTSO locations carry to our statutory bottom line. Due to the mechanics of the accounting for depreciation and leases under AASB 16, a higher charge is taken to the P&L early in the life cycle of a new lease relative to later in the lease's life cycle. In 2025, depreciation on flex space assets and the impact of AASB 16 translated to $4.9 million in charges towards our statutory loss.
Almost 50% of this charge was contributed by the 12 new WOTSO locations we have opened over the past two years. As these new locations mature and leases extend beyond initial lease terms, this impact on the statutory bottom line will diminish. As we grow, the number of locations and the proportion of new locations open decreases relative to the rest of the portfolio, the relative impact of depreciation and AASB 16 as a percentage of our earnings will also diminish. Turning to page 14 to look at the balance sheet, the execution of our strategy to grow the flex space business is supported by a strong property holdings with a healthy level of year-end.
Our net assets at 30 June sat at $228 million, but includes valuations on the property portfolio that, in our view, are discounted because of the related party nature of the WOTSO tenancy and the underlying subscription model of the WOTSO business. The independent appraisals received for our property portfolio include $17 million of discounts and adjustments related to the WOTSO tenancies in these properties, which under prevailing valuation methodologies are assessed as vacant tenancies and require a let-up period, leasing fees, and lease incentives to attract tenants. The reality is that these tenancies are filled with the WOTSO flex space and no let-up period, leasing fees, or lease incentives will be incurred.
In light of this, our net assets at June 2025 have decreased by $8 million, partly due to this challenge in the valuation of our property holdings, but then also due to the impact of the leasing accounting standard, which has resulted in net lease liabilities increasing $3 million as new leases were entered into in the year for new locations, and due to the accounting mechanics of the leasing standard, which requires that lease assets unwind at a faster rate than corresponding lease liabilities. Despite these challenges, our balance sheet continues to reflect a healthy position with statutory NAV sitting at $1.41 per security.
With NAV at this level, the current ASX price continues to represent a significant discount, and this discount is only further emphasized when the valuation of the WOTSO flex space business is considered, which has been valued at $92 million in arriving at our adjusted NAV figure of $1.79 per security. This discounted NAV represents a further challenge as capital raising for growth is limited. Turning to page 15, in reviewing how our balance sheet has grown during the year, we have bolstered our property holdings by almost $9 million with the acquisition of two property investments in Melbourne and Whangarei in New Zealand, and by further investing in the enhancement of our existing properties. We also incurred just under $4 million in CapEx on fitting out WOTSO locations. Most of this related to the new locations opening Q4. This is $12.6 million of capital investment deployed.
This investment has been funded by way of a mix of operating profits, proceeds from sale of non-core assets, and an increase in borrowings secured against our property holdings. While we have seen an increase in borrowings, net gearing remains sustainable and sits at just over 30%, a slight increase from 27% in June 2024. Despite gearing remaining at a healthy level, narrowing the gap between the current ASX price and NAV is a key initiative of the group to not only provide value to security holders, but to open up capital raising opportunities and accelerate WOTSO's growth initiatives in a sustainable and value-add manner. Without narrowing the discounted NAV and accelerating growth through immaterial capital raising, future growth initiatives will focus on expanding through the lease portfolio sustainably where opportunities are available.
This growth will be funded partly through operating cash flow, continued disposal of non-core assets, and landlord sit-out contributions. I will now pass it back to Jessie.
Thanks, Chris. Before we pass to the moderator for questions, thanks everyone for tuning in to listen. As you can see, we're passionate about what we're doing and really excited for what is to come. I will now pass to the moderator for any questions, and I've moved to page 16.
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 are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may press star one on your telephone keypad.
We have a question in the waiting room.
Sure.
Okay. I'll read the question out. Hello, Jess, Seph, and Chris. Welcome, Chris. This is from Brendan Harrington. I hope you are really well. Thank you for another great year. One, the flex space at +6% was softer than I was expecting, and given the strong growth of maturing startup locations, $2.74 million, and same location RevPad of a 4% increase, does this suggest that some locations contracted? Part two to that question, can you please speak to any progression with the sale of Yarndina? And part three, I appreciate the dividend, but given where the stock trades today relative to NAV and the FY2030 trajectory you have presented today, why aren't share buybacks the highest priority for investment and capital return?
Seph Glew here. The first bit perhaps Chris and Jess can address. Brendan, going to the why aren't we doing buybacks? We need the capital and the low share price is not causing any distress in the operating business at the moment. As time goes by, that could well be something that we will start doing again, but we'd want to do it in a meaningful way with some serious capital to do it. It's simply preservation of capital. Yarndina, it looks like we're not going to get the price that we were hoping to achieve, and our view is that we shouldn't be selling property on a 12% yield or thereabouts, which is probably what we would have to sell it at to achieve a sale.
We are looking at a syndication option, and I think that's probably the path we'll go down, is set up a fund and syndicate the property. In terms of the RevPad questions and the growth.
Yeah, I'm happy to take that one. You're right, Brendan. A lot of our top line revenue growth is due to those locations that I mentioned. In terms of the mature locations, you know one of our largest mature sites is North Strathfield. We probably haven't been able to achieve great growth on top line revenue there given its mature state and just challenges at that site. As for other locations, like our Canberra ones, we saw a soft downturn or a slowdown in those locations around the election time, which has since bounced back in the last couple of months of the year. I think in general, also, as you'll see on page 12, that kind of shows the monthly nature of our revenue cycle. You can see that we have seasonal downturns around the Christmas holidays.
I would say this year, we bounced back from that seasonal downturn at probably a slower rate than what we have over the past few years. In any event, we then surpassed where we were pre that downturn.
Chris, can I leap in there? You mentioned North Strathfield. I think we, and we've actually mentioned it in our annual results. The problem out there is that we've had a troublesome landlord that has caused us considerable difficulty over the, really, since probably four or five years. We're talking things like scaffolding being put across our front entrance, drilling and noise above, rust proofing, paint smells flying through the place. Lots of difficulties like that have made it difficult for us to lift the revenue there. The facts are that we are currently not paying the full rent. We're accruing the difference between that, and we are about to start litigation against the landlord. We do have a right of abatement, so we're going to argue about what that is, but we think we've been caused considerable damage.
On the positive side, the barriers that were causing us difficulties out there have now been pretty much removed. They're moving from delinquent landlord to neutral landlord. The result of that, I think, Jess, I'm correct in saying, is that the place is filling up. We now have, we're virtually pretty much full, and we expect now that we'll start getting some revenue growth out there. You will undoubtedly see the litigation starting on the other side. We'll litigate against the landlord and hopefully grow our revenue at the same time after years of trouble.
We have another question from Alex Morgan. Hi Jessie, I noticed $67 million of debt is due for refinancing this year. Could you outline your expectations for the refinancing process? Chris, I'll pass to you on that one.
Yeah, I can take that one. The biggest facility up for renewal is our $44 million facility that's secured against the Sunshine Cove, Sparcy Lakes, Dixon, and Simonstone properties. We're actually in current discussions with NAB on splitting that facility into three separate facilities, with a portion of the facility secured solely against the Dixon property and a portion secured solely against the Simonstone property. As part of that, we're also tying in the renewal of that. Those discussions are fairly well advanced, and I expect that debt will be renewed probably in the next couple of weeks, probably on a two-year term, I imagine. The other facilities, we're just starting discussions with the banks on those, but I don't foresee any concerns or issues in not having them renewed. I would expect they should all be renewed on similar terms.
I hope, I hope promise us low amounts. I'm hopeful of favorable terms, but yeah.
Thank you. We have a question from Paul Turnbull, shareholder. Please go ahead.
The location, and I really like it. I just wonder, given the approach to having suburban settings, where there's going to be more CBD locations and where it fits with the overall rollout strategy.
Sorry, Paul, we missed the start of that question. Do you mind just repeating it?
I was talking about the WOTSO FlexSpace location in Melbourne, which I really like and recently visited. It's a bit different from the suburban locations that you've got elsewhere, as I understand it. I wonder whether we're likely to see more CBD office spaces in the future and where it fits.
Yeah, I think it's a really good question. Thank you for visiting and having a look. I think where we're sort of setting up our locations, they're all unique to where they are. The space that we have in Liverpool is obviously very different to the space that we have at Bank Place. It's very different to the space that we have in Chelmside. We've sent a group there. Each is unique and appeals to its market. That's for the difference in the look and feel, and it generally will appeal to the style of the asset. The point around will you see more spaces opening up in CBDs, the way I like to think of it is that we have a, and this is probably terrible to say, but a hub and spoke model, but kind of in the reverse.
All of our hubs are out in the suburbs and the regions, and then we have our spoke kind of in the CBD. There will generally be a smaller space. You may have seen recently that we opened our location in the CBD in Sydney with Stockland, a little what we call a coworking cafe. No coffee offered, but more a community-centric, smaller space that retail-ifies flex in many ways. Those might start popping up more as we see them being how the CBDs may operate. You will potentially see more in the CBD.
The good spaces for our members to use the links from out in the suburbs.
Yes, we found that the spaces that we've opened, particularly the one in the Sydney CBD, we opened it to just our database, and I think we were still full within two weeks.
Thank you. I want, I guess, a second question too, which was I love to see the Bubba Desk space and the kind of innovations in there. In the past, you had a restaurant kind of themed space that you were setting up. Is that still going and did that work? Have you got any more experiments in the pipeline?
Yeah. In terms of what you're referring to, cook space, yes, we are nearly there with planning approval at our North Strathfield location, which is actually in an asset that is owned in a private syndicate, not in the same space that we lease. We have the planning approval. It's a certification to open, and it will be our first cook space. It's been a big learning experience for all of us. I think now that we know how to roll one out, you will see us exploring this concept, but probably not in the basement of an office tower. It would likely go into an industrial property where services are easily cut in and can be managed. In terms of experimenting with other concepts, yes, we want to experiment with how we can add service to our members. The most important thing being making it convenient and easy.
To the point around Bubba Desk, that's offering a service to our members that they currently don't have, and we feel is a positive. Where we can add service that makes it easier, we will do so, and we will experiment as much as possible with that.
Thank you. You may be aware of the bad publicity that childcare has had in Victoria recently, and I think spreading to New South Wales as well. Is the kind of regulatory risk with that mitigated because mum's on site or dad's on site, and so you don't really have the same opportunity for the abuse to occur?
Yes, that is exactly what Lauren Perrett, the founder of Bubba Desk, has been openly saying, is that really there does need to be a fundamental shift in childcare in general. She is really pushing her product as sort of a new way of looking after children to be, I guess, to be looked at. I do believe that the risks that come with childcare are definitely reduced with a concept like this because you are on site. For me, it was fabulous. I was able to pop downstairs and breastfeed my little girl whilst still being able to attend meetings and go to work, and I could go down and have lunch with her. I do think it's definitely a new way to explore looking after kids.
Wonderful. Thank you.
We have another question from Brendan. Thank you. That's great. Can you please speak to third-party opportunities for Hamlet? Do competitors want to let WOTSO run their software? I love that question. I'm really excited about Hamlet, Brendan. I think it's given us so much operational efficiencies, and it has also delivered those efficiencies to our competitors. With everyone in the industry, there are so many different products available for flex to use as its operating platform. No one knows what the right product is, and all have their issues. Obviously, we believe ours is best and should be used by the whole flex market. We don't mind that others are using the software that we're building, and we're not getting the pushback that they mind either. We've built it using our business and using our operating the way that we operate.
As a result, I think we're getting efficiencies that other platforms don't have because they don't have the operator building the platform. I hope I've answered that question, Brendan.
Brendan, I think it's also worth mentioning that with the flex space operators, there isn't that sort of competitive element that you see in a lot of other places, a lot of other businesses. For example, when we acquired the property we've got in Whangarei, one of the first things we did once we got it established how we'd handle it is we approached the other flex space operators in Whangarei and said, "Let's work together." There's a level of cooperation because we are each providing a different product. We thought in Whangarei's case there might be a bit of pushback, but it was quite the opposite. They're embracing our arrival, and we've probably found that in other places too. We work together, so there's no reason that they would be resistive to using our software. If it works for them, they'll use it.
I might just give another example there of competition. I'll use the example at Chermside. We have Workspace 365 open up in the asset sort of with Tenor Group in one of their office buildings right next door to where we are. In fact, it's brought more people looking for flex to the area, and we've got a different product offering. They're offering a corporate look and feel. We're offering a more fun, I guess, relaxed environment. Together, I think we give a breadth of, I guess, of opportunity for people to use.
You broaden the offer.
Yeah, broaden the offer. Brendan, you also sort of talked to how are you hiring, retaining, and developing your team at all levels in advance of the expected growth? Are you encouraging staff to buy the stock with Gusto? To the first part, really proud of our Head of People, Claire Simmons, who has developed a training program for all of our WOTSO teams who come into the business. They go through an eight-week training program. We're now developing that online and have, we feel, really good support for that team. We're also of the view that we're building our team. Where we're hiring for new roles, we're looking internally first for those roles and if we can fill them through that. I believe we're seeing loyalty out of that, but I also think that we're doing the right thing by our team and seeing them grow.
It's great to see people that have been with the business when they were sort of 21 and they're now 30, and that feels pretty good to us. In terms of encouraging staff to buy stock, we've come up with a, I guess, a new bonus scheme that will look to that. Are we encouraging them to buy? Not sure we can do that, but we're certainly telling them what the story is and they believe in it.
Jess, it might also be worth mentioning that we think our head office overheads are crudely bloated, and that's deliberate. We've grown a bigger head office team than we need for the business we've got at the moment. We expect that our cost per site will decline over time because we've already got the people in place to do it.
Great.
I think you're saying there's
Are there more questions?
No more questions. If there aren't, we'll close the session.
I'm not sure you do that.
I was talking about.
Yes, there are no further questions at this time. Thank you. I'll now hand back to Ms. Glew for closing remarks.
Thank you very much, everyone, for attending. Really appreciate your time this morning, and we look forward to updating you at the end of next year.
Thank you. That concludes our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.