All right. Morning, everybody. I'm John O'Reilly, Rank Group CEO. I'm delighted to welcome you to the group's results presentation for the year ending 30th of June 2024. Many thanks for taking the time to be with us here this morning. Appreciate it's a busy results morning in the sector. So, many thanks for being here. Many thanks, too, for those of you joining us online. I'm joined this morning by Richard Harris, Rank Group's CFO. I'm gonna start with a kind of summary of the group's overall performance in the financial year and the performance of each of our business units. Richard will then run through the financial numbers in a bit more detail. I'll then provide a quick update on the delivery against our strategic plan.
And in that regard, I'll say something about the next set of kind of key deliverables. Along the way, I'll provide a bit of progress on our ESG program, and also give you an update on current trading. So that's the plan, and we'll take any questions you've got at the end. So, in overview, it's been a good year. We're delivering well against the strategic plan, and we've taken good momentum into this new financial year. We had a good first half last year, and we've delivered continued revenue and profitability growth through the second half of the year, with a full year like-for-like operating profit outturn of GBP 46.5 million. Across the year, like-for-like net gaming revenue, or NGR, grew 9%, and that was split 8% growth in the venues businesses and 12% growth in the Digital business.
We've landed a number of key technology projects, and these are undoubtedly helping us to drive the growth we're seeing and expect to see, in truth, in the Digital business. We ended the year with GBP 20.9 million of net cash, reflecting the stronger cash flows as trading continues to improve, and that balance sheet strength has enabled us to both continue investing in our strategic transformation initiatives, as well as reintroducing a dividend for our shareholders. There isn't a great deal of detail that I can share with you today regarding the timetable for implementing the Gambling Act review, other than to reiterate that we expect the proposed reforms to be implemented. With a new government in place and a new ministerial team at DCMS, it's likely to be the autumn before we are clear about the timing of the much-needed land-based modernizations.
I'll say a little bit, a little bit about our ESG program as we run through, but in the round, we're making good progress, particularly in terms of cutting carbon emissions, and we've also been delivering record colleague engagement scores across the group, and we're super proud of that. So good momentum across all of our businesses, with a strong half two, a particularly strong Q4, where revenue grew 14%, and that revenue growth is continuing into this new financial year. In terms of the performance of each of the business unit, of each of the businesses, I'll start with Grosvenor Casinos, and the health of Grosvenor is always key to the overall performance of the Rank Group. Grosvenor is continuing to improve its performance with a strengthened management team and good momentum.
Like-for-like NGR of GBP 331 million in the year, that's an average of GBP 6.3 million per week, was up 9% on the prior year, with the London estate growing 10% and the rest of the U.K. growing 8%. Customer visits grew 9% across the estate, and that was up 11% in London, with the rest of the U.K. growing by 9%. It's a business with a very strong operating leverage. Most of the costs are fixed, so with a 9% growth in revenue, like-for-like operating profit was up 42% to GBP 23.7 million. Cost inflation in the year primarily centered around employment costs, which rose by GBP 17.6 million. Now, we continued to invest in the quality of the Grosvenor estate and in our products and services during the year.
Development CapEx in the estate was GBP 7.6 million, and that included the full refurbishment of Grosvenor Leicester and some early preparatory works for the expected land-based reforms in the Gambling Act review. CapEx on products and services amounted to GBP 6.4 million, and we invested a further GBP 5 million in property infrastructure and maintenance. In Grosvenor Casinos, we're building a quality business with a good level of revenue growth, and as I've said, a strong operating leverage. We expect to continue to grow revenues from the GBP 6.3 million a week in FY 2024 to GBP 7 million per week and beyond. The expected reforms in the Gambling Act review will serve to provide further impetus, of course, by enabling casinos to broaden their appeal to consumers. Mecca, very importantly, has returned to profitability, and the confidence within the Mecca business continues to grow.
The rationalization of the estate is now complete, with the exception of just one planned closure this year, which will take the estate to 51 venues. It's a stronger and highly competitive estate, delivering like-for-like NGR growth of 8% in the year. That's up to GBP 138.6 million. Visits grew by 2%, with spend per visit growing by 6%, and that growth is a consequence of stronger liquidity, busy venues driving bigger prize boards, which in turn attract more customers. Looking at the growth by revenue stream, Main Stage Bingo, which is the primary reason why people visit Mecca, grew 11% and we're now 11% ahead of where we were in 2019 on a like-for-like basis.
Gaming machines grew 9%—also grew 9%, and is now also ahead of where we were in 2019, and that's benefited from the development investment in the machine areas within 17 Mecca venues during the year. I said we returned to profitability. Like-for-like operating profit was GBP 3.9 million, and that compares with a loss of GBP 5.6 million the prior year. We've invested in the stronger estate this year, with total capital expenditure of GBP 14.1 million, of which GBP 10.1 million was development investment in the refurbishment of gaming machine areas, as I've said, in modernizing exteriors and signage, and in products, notably gaming machine upgrades, Bingo tablets, and some other system enhancements. GBP 4 million was invested in infrastructure and maintenance across the estate.
We're expecting continued revenue growth from a stronger and more competitive estate of venues, from improvements we're making to the customer offering, and from the land-based reforms, which will enable Bingo venues to provide the gaming machines that our customers want to play. We've a strong management team, a quality program of growth initiatives, and as I say, we've got good momentum in the Mecca business. The Bingo market in Spain was also affected by a step-down in attendances following lockdown and the pandemic restrictions. However, the Enracha business, which has nine flagship Spanish Bingo and gaming machine venues, has recovered very strongly over the past few years, and has benefited from good levels of attendance and strong prize boards relative to competitors.
NGR grew a further 7% in the year to GBP 38.5 million, with Bingo revenues up 7% and gaming machine revenues also up 7%. Attendances were up 6% in the year. Operating profit increased by 7% to GBP 9.6 million from those nine flagship venues. We've invested a further GBP 2.3 million on two Enracha venue refurbishments, the rollout of a customer loyalty program, a new CRM system, jackpot display screens, and a new food and beverage EPoS system. Enracha is a well-managed business, meeting the needs and expectations of its customers, and it's performing well as a consequence. At the capital markets event we held in November, we highlighted the strong progress we were beginning to make in the Digital business, following the acquisitions of YoBingo in 2018 and Stride Gaming in 2019.
And the priority there was to bring proprietary technology in-house, and we're now really starting to reap the dividends. A key strategic pillar for the group is to scale the digital business, and that is now happening, and with it, we're starting to deliver strong margin improvement. In the year, we grew NGR by 12% to GBP 226 million. Grosvenor grew revenues by 21%, and Mecca grew revenue by 20%, both helped by strong cross-channel customer growth. Our other U.K.-facing brands on the proprietary platform declined by 1%, but they grew 11% in the second half of the year, and this is in large part being driven by the migration of all of our proprietary technology brands onto a single content management system, which delivers a much-improved experience for the customer.
Other key in-year technology improvements included the launch of our first in-house developed app for the Grosvenor business, and the successful build-out of the central engagement platform. We're continuing with the modernization work on the core U.K.-facing platform, and we expect to conclude this during this financial year, and that further enhances the speed of our developments, and all importantly, the speed of release of those developments to the market. In Spain, the Yo and Enracha brands grew revenue by 16%, supported by the release of Live Bingo, which is a new streamed Bingo service we've introduced, which is proving popular with Yo customers. We had good growth rates, too, in from both Yo Casino and Yo Sports in the year. Operating profit in the Digital business was up 79% to GBP 23.4 million.
Capital investment was GBP 10.3 million, very largely in the development of our proprietary technology. The non-proprietary business declined 21% in the year, and we've taken the decision to sell this business. We expect the sale to successfully complete in the coming few months. And we've also exited our shareholding in the Indian Rummy business, Passion Gaming, and we did that for a nominal consideration at the end of June. And those transactions tidy up the Digital business and leave it well set to meet the ambitions we've laid out for the coming years, namely high revenue growth and margin improvement. And I'll now pass to Richard to take you through the financial numbers.
Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. Starting on the financial highlights, the year saw revenue momentum continue to improve, with strong growth in all businesses. As John has outlined, like-for-like net gaming revenue was GBP 734.4 million, up 9% on the prior year. The revenue growth has converted through to improved like-for-like operating profit of GBP 46.5 million. I'll run through the drivers of operating profit in more detail shortly, but it was really pleasing to see all businesses deliver much improved profitability. In addition, the group's rolling twelve-month like-for-like operating profit showed continued and steady improvement month- on- month as the year progressed. The higher operating profits fed through to underlying EPS of GBP 0.059 per share, versus GBP 0.011 per share last year.
Net free cash flow has improved to GBP 27.6 million, up from an outflow last year, and we ended the year with a positive net cash balance, excluding leases, of GBP 20.9 million. Finally, as announced this morning, we're recommending to shareholders a final dividend of GBP 0.085 per share. The improved business performance and the group's strong cash position give the board confidence to restart the dividend. It's our intention to also declare an interim dividend at the half-year results in January, so this final dividend should be considered in that context. In summary, the key financial metrics are all moving in the right direction, but with significant room for further recovery and growth. I'm not going to spend too much time on our investment case. It's here as a brief reminder of what we outlined at the capital markets event in November.
The plan is to deliver sustainable, long-term growth in both earnings and cash generation. We believe the Bingo venues in the U.K. and Spain will make a positive contribution to the group's profit and cash flow. In Grosvenor, we're focused on driving average weekly revenue up to at least GBP 7 million per week, and that figure is excluding the benefits of the Gambling Act review and before any material changes in the property estate. In the Digital business, there's a clear plan to grow market share in what was obviously a very competitive market. We believe the opportunity is there to deliver 8%-12% compounded annual revenue growth and at the same time deliver the material margin improvement. All of the components of the investment case are underpinned by our key strategic enablers, and they're shown at the bottom of the slide.
In terms of delivery against the investment case, it's worth dwelling on a few points of note in FY 2024. The rationalization of the Mecca estate is now largely complete. We closed the year with 52 clubs, with a further closure planned in FY 2025. We'll continue to keep the estate under review in the next few years as lease events arise. However, there are currently only a small number of loss-making clubs, and with future developments, we expect to be able to get those into profitability. In the clubs trading during the period, we delivered 8% revenue growth, and having returned the business to modest profitability in H1, we made further progress in the second half of the year. Full-year operating profit in Mecca was GBP 3.9 million, and we expect to move towards that double digit operating profit in the medium term.
Enracha has had another strong period, as John outlined, with 7% revenue growth and 7% growth in operating profit. In Grosvenor, the GBP 6.3 million average revenue per week is up from GBP 5.9 million last year, and the low is of GBP 5.1 million in the second half of FY 2022. The 9% improvement in revenue demonstrated the strong operating leverage that we have in the Grosvenor business, with a drop-through to profit of 42%. We're on track to deliver our target of at least GBP 7 million per week before you add the expected upside of the Gambling Act review. Digital revenues grew by 12%, with Grosvenor, Mecca, and Yo all delivering strong performance, and we saw margin improvement of 390 basis points, largely driven by that revenue growth and operating leverage.
We expect margins to further improve in the year ahead before the downside of the Gambling Act review impacts the Digital business. Update on that a little bit later. This chart highlights the main drivers of year-on-year movement in like-for-like operating profit, so stripping out the impact of closed clubs. Revenue growth of 9% delivers just over GBP 40 million of profit improvement after deducting the associated taxes, duties, as well as direct costs of sales. Energy costs were just under GBP 10 million lower to around GBP 18 million last year, and the improvement is largely driven by lower market energy prices, but also from reduced consumption and our investments in energy efficiency. There was lower depreciation of GBP 10 million, and that was driven by the significant impairments made in previous years.
On the other hand, we have seen significant increases in employment costs, which were up GBP 28.8 million or 11%. This is a combination of wage inflation, some selected investment in headcount, and the reinstatement of colleague bonuses. Other costs are up GBP 5 million, a reflection of further selected investments and general inflation. So overall, the revenue growth is driving much improved profitability, but with a net cost increase due to the impact of employment costs. And again, more on that later. You can see here a bridge from operating profit through to net free cash flow, which was GBP 27.6 million in the period, and I'll just highlight a few points. Lease payments were GBP 39 million, and this now excludes the VAT component of these payments, which we've moved into working capital in our reporting.
Net finance costs and tax were a net outflow of GBP 5.7 million. A few moving parts, so net tax paid - sorry, cash tax paid in the year was GBP 5.5 million. We had a tax refund with respect to historical overpayments of GBP 7.9 million, and then net external interest and refinancing costs totaled GBP 8.1 million. The working capital inflow in the period was GBP 25.1 million, and that was driven by the group's improved financial performance, which has resulted in higher duty tax and taxes payable and the reinstatement of employee bonuses, both of which are paid post-year end. In the table on the right-hand side, you can see there's a relatively straight, straightforward flow-through of net free cash flow into closing net cash, which was GBP 20.9 million, excluding the lease liabilities.
When you add those lease liabilities and net debt was GBP 132.5 million. Just providing a bit of detail on the capital expenditure in the year. So total spend was GBP 46.7 million, with 70% of the spend on growth investment and the balance on maintenance and infrastructure spend. As I've mentioned previously, there's a backlog of maintenance and infrastructure work that needs to be worked through to ensure that our venues remain operational and all hygiene factors are dealt with. So these are the real basics: heating and cooling, electricals, data cabling, and the fabric of the building, and so on. In Grosvenor, we've continued to invest in product, venue modernizations, and some initial GAR enabling works.
In our Bingo venues, we have a number of proven low-cost investment schemes in both Mecca and in Enracha that improve the customer proposition and delivering strong returns. Finally, we've invested in the key technology programs that were outlined at the capital markets event in November and that John touched upon earlier. Some of these have started to contribute to the digital growth seen in FY 2024, and some will start to benefit in FY 2025. As outlined in January, we expect to spend approximately GBP 60 million of CapEx in the year ahead. In absolute terms, the level of maintenance and infrastructure spend will be broadly flat versus FY 2024, and then it will reduce in future years as we will have worked through that historical backlog. We're investing almost GBP 15 million in our flagship casino at the Vic.
This includes a significant level of infrastructure spend, but will also transform the venue into an even better casino. Building on the venue our visitors love today, but with a stronger customer proposition. We'll continue to roll out those low-cost investment schemes in Mecca and Enracha, and we'll also test other schemes that create a more contemporary experience in our Mecca venues. We'll continue to develop the RIDE and Digital platform, forms to fuel the future growth opportunity that we can see ahead of us. There are a small amount of GAR-enabling works planned in the year ahead, and this will reduce if we do not get certainty over the timing of the reforms. Turning to the financial guidance. So starting on wage inflation, and that remains the main headwind for the group in FY 2025.
The National Minimum Wage increased by 9.8% in April, allowing for that, a sensible increase in April 2025, and lower increases in more senior roles, would see employment costs increase by around 7%. We put in place a new hedging policy at the start of last financial year, and that proactive approach has served us well in managing energy costs. They're expected to be broadly flat in the year ahead. We fixed the price on just over half of our planned energy consumption and with a higher proportion of first half consumption already fixed. So as a result, we expect to be able to manage through any short-term volatility in market prices.
Net financing charges are expected to reduce further to between GBP 11 million and GBP 12 million in the year, based on current interest rates, and the effective tax rate is expected to be 17%-19% on underlying profits. CapEx is gonna be GBP 60 million, around GBP 60 million, and to reiterate what I've said before, we take a disciplined approach to all of our investments, and we'll only spend where we're confident of generating very strong returns. So taking all of that into consideration and allowing for the payment of this year's final dividend and the further interim dividend next year, we expect to be broadly cash flow neutral in the year ahead.
Looking further out, having delivered our 12% digital revenue growth in 2024 and a better growth rate in our core brands, we expect the Digital business to grow by a further 8%-12% compounded in the medium term. Having improved digital margins by 390 basis points in the year, and despite the headwinds we'll see online with the Gambling Act review, we now expect to grow digital operating margins by at least 600 basis points on a like-for-like basis against the FY 2023 base. On cash, whilst our forecast is to be cash flow neutral in the year ahead, we expect cash generation to improve from FY 2026 and beyond. We've got plenty of good uses of cash, but there remains some uncertainty over the timing of the Gambling Act review.
Having restarted the dividend, we'll provide an update on our capital allocation policy at an appropriate time. Finally, just one for noting. The lease liabilities on the balance sheet are at historically low levels, at less than 4x our annual rental payments. In large part, this is because we've sought to retain lease flexibility over our venues estate. However, there are now a number of strategic properties where we need to ensure we have security of tenure for the long- term. By extending the leases on these strategically important properties, we will increase the lease liabilities position and, by definition, our lease-adjusted net debt. It's the right thing to do and good for the health of the business, but just one to be aware of. Bringing all of that together in the summary of our expected cash generation.
So that's the output, the Rank investment case. We've got a further 12 months to go in our initial phase. We're investing for growth and expect to be cash flow neutral. During the second phase, broadly relating to the period 12-13 months from now, we'll be balancing investment and returns. Earnings momentum will have improved further, and whilst investment is still at elevated levels, as we expect to be maximizing the opportunities from the Gambling Act review, we'll have a period of modest cash generation. And then finally, the third phase, around 2.5 years from now and beyond, earnings are expected to be in a much better place, and we should be over the higher levels of investment that have been required. During this phase, we'll be growing our shareholder returns. I'll hand back to John.
Many thanks, Richard. Right, to the strategic update and the outlook. This is a shot of the newly refurbished Grosvenor Casino in Leicester, which had its opening event, not that it ever closed, of course, but had its opening event last weekend. As you have seen, we've had a good year, which is great. We're delivering against the investment case, which gets Rank to a GBP 100 million+ operating profit. And key to the continued performance improvement is the delivery against our, our five strategic pillars. Firstly, providing a seamless and tailored experience to customers across venues and digital, and that's our key corporate capability and a source of competitive advantage. The next phase of development here is the delivery of a unified membership system. We started with Mecca, and we'll deliver that this year.
This means the customer becoming a Mecca customer, regardless of channel of registration, and being personally recognized across channels. The second pillar, driving digital growth, powered by our proprietary technology and live play credentials, we are increasingly evidencing. As always, much more to do, and we've got a strong roadmap of initiatives ahead of us. Continuously evolving our venues estate with engaging propositions that appeal to both existing and new customers, is reflected in our capital investment program, which is delivering good returns. Clearly, we'll benefit significantly by the proposed land-based reforms, which will help us to broaden the appeal of casinos to better meet the expectations of both casino, actually, casino and Bingo customers.
Our fourth strategic pillar is to be passionate about the development and well-being of our colleagues, and the contribution we make to our communities, and we're delighted that our colleague engagement scores across the group have grown to a record score of 79%, which is testament to the work of the senior leadership teams in each of our businesses. There's a lot of work going on to improve our employee value proposition, including investments we're making in learning and development, and in the effectiveness of our communication across the group. Our venues continue to play a crucial role within their local communities, and it's been another strong year in terms of charitable support, particularly for the Carers Trust, our corporate charity.
Our fifth strategic pillar is to build sustainable relationships with our customers by providing them with safe environments in which to play, and this is right at the heart of the Rank Group, and central to the way in which we operate. We continue to make significant improvements to the way in which we manage customer risk, interacting earlier and more positively with customers, and improving our processes, our systems, and the mindset and skill set of our colleagues. Now, to provide some additional detail on some of the key initiatives which support our strategic plan, there's a page in the deck which highlights some of the projects which were delivered in the second half of last year. Here's a summary of some of the key initiatives we're delivering during the first half of this year.
Within the Grosvenor business, we're replacing a further 248 electronic game table gaming terminals. We've recently launched a new sports betting proposition, ahead of the reform in the Gambling Act review, and that's within our single 2005 licensed casino, which is Grosvenor Luton. We're carrying out external modernization to a further three Grosvenor casinos during this first half. In Mecca, we're trialing new Bingo display screens, which make the game more experiential. We're refurbishing gaming machine areas in a further seven Mecca venues, and we have introduced a new events program, with acts performing in hundreds of shows in Mecca venues up and down the country. Within Enracha, we're completing the rollout of Enracha Club, which is a single cross-channel registration process in all of our venues.
We'll complete the refurbishment of Enracha Seville, and we'll be commencing the refurbishment of our venue in Sabadell. Sabadell, a little city just about 30 minutes from Barcelona. Within the cross-channel roadmap, we're expecting to be launching the new in-house developed Mecca app towards the end of this half. We're adding more live tables from the Grosvenor estate online, and we're launching Cash Dash, and that's a popular Mecca venues game. We're launching that online. Within the Digital business, our new TV campaign for Mecca Bingo went live a couple of weeks ago. We're continuing with the modernization program of work for the proprietary platform, and hopefully, we're completing the licensing process for YoBingo in Portugal, and that is something which has proven to be a bit more arduous and drawn out than we'd hoped, but we are making good progress at long last.
In terms of organizational capability, the transition to a new financial consolidation system is very close to completion. We're starting the rollout of our core HR system to our international locations, and we have a number of important developments to our customer risk management processes in both Hawkeye, which is our digital customer monitoring tool, and in our RiskApp, which is the system which drives customer views and interactions within Grosvenor Casinos. They're just some of the new initiatives that will land in the first half of this year. Just a few words on our drive to net zero. We've installed data capture technology in our 40 highest energy-using venues, which monitors the energy usage of over 12,000 assets, I understand, from gaming machines to fridges, dishwashers, and so on. It does that in real time.
And that's part of GBP 8.7 million we invested in energy-saving initiatives in the year, and that's helping to deliver good levels of energy reduction. kWh were down 32% in the year, and that is after the benefit of a power purchase agreement, which is purchasing of renewables. And our greenhouse gas emissions were down 11%, so we're making good progress. Delivering net zero involves everyone right across the group, inevitably, and we've launched a cultural engagement program called Rank Planet, and with Rank Planet champions in all of our venues and office locations, helping to drive energy-saving initiatives.
We're conducting net zero audits of our venues to help further identify key energy reduction measures, and our previously announced target is to meet net zero for all Scope One, Scope Two, and some of the more controllable Scope Three emissions by 2035. And we also have a Scope Three baselining exercise underway. So to the current trading and sort of outlook, we've made a good start to the new financial year, which is great. We exited FY 2024 with a good level of momentum, and that has continued into, into the new financial year, with overall group NGR up 10% for the first six weeks, and that's up 10% against a strong set of results for the first six weeks of last year.
So a good positive start to the year with good growth levels, and that's across both venues and digital. We still have cost pressures, particularly employment costs, but all importantly, we have the opportunity to drive revenue growth in each of our businesses. We've got a strong cash position, which enables continued investment in our strategic priorities, and for the group to be able to reintroduce a dividend for our shareholders, which is good news. And we're well-placed for the planned legislative reforms for land-based Bingo and casinos when they arrive, and we're looking forward to those. And that brings us to questions. I think we're gonna take questions from the room first, I think. So if you've got a question, we'll get the mic to you. Matt's doing that now.
Douglas, you'll know the form here, but if you can give your name, if you wouldn't mind, because those people online will then know who's asking the question, that would be great. And if you've got a question online, if you type in the Q&A box, we'll try and pick up any questions which we've not covered in the room.
Okay. Okay, yes. Douglas Jack at Peel Hunt. So I've got three questions, if that's okay. First one is, and if you're allowed to put in the extra gaming machines or when, what's the likely sort of uplift in CapEx would you expect? How you phase that out is the first one. Is the working capital movement you had in the year just finished, are we gonna see any sort of, you know, reverse of that, next year? And then the last one is, in terms of legislation on employment worker rights, is there any exposure there, particularly in terms of the national minimum wage, age bands for 18- 21-year-olds? Thanks.
Douglas, no problem at all. Many thanks for the question. So if I take the first and the third, I think working capital movements is definitely beyond my pay grade, so I'll leave that to Richard. So gaming machines and CapEx. So, one of the, one of the challenges we have today is that the... You know, with 20 machines in a casino in the U.K., and I think there are now 117 open casino properties in the U.K., it's a pretty small market. So the level of choice for the consumer is pretty limited. Where, principally, we've got two machine suppliers that service the U.K., industry. I recently took the board to... We, we had a board event in Barcelona.
I took the board to a Barcelona casino, and within kind of, whatever it was, 25 yards, there are, in an area called the Golden Mile in the Barcelona casino, there are eight different machine suppliers, and we've got two in the U.K. So the principal thing is to broaden the offer for the consumer. But we'll do it through revenue share, revenue share models and some lease arrangements rather than CapEx. So gaming machines per se in casinos are not, for us, capital intensive. We don't expect that to be the case. We'll be leasing and providing revenue shares, but there is some capital involved in preparing the venues for the event for it to take an additional number of machines.
Across the estate, we expect to double by FY 2027, subject to the timing of the reforms. Employment worker rights, we've just got to kind of wait and see what happens. So we don't differentiate by age. So the that doesn't-- that won't have any impact on our cost base in the group. We don't discriminate between somebody who's 18 and somebody who's 25 and somebody who's 45, or fortunately, in my case, 64, which is good. But we've just got to wait and see. We've got to wait and see what happens across the board.
We don't have zero-hour contracts, so I'm not expecting any material impact for the group, but clearly, it does depend upon what those measures are gonna be at the end of the, whatever it is, the 100-day review. We'll wait and see. Working capital?
Working capital, yeah. So we aren't expecting the working capital improvement that we've seen in the year to reverse. Expect further working capital improvement in the year ahead, but not to the same magnitude as what we've seen in the year that's just gone.
Thank you. Richard Stuber from Deutsche Bank. Could I ask three questions, please? First one is on the Euros, and the impact. Presumably slightly positive for online, but could it be slightly negative for casinos as people stayed away to watch the football? But is there anything around, yeah, the impact there? The second question is around Enracha. I was wondering whether you expect to get some more operating leverage coming through this year. I guess, unlike your other sort of venues and digital, it was revenue and EBIT were up the same in FY 2024. And the third one, just to confirm, in terms of the EPS, you said you'll provide an interim. Should we model it in terms of two-thirds final, one-third interim, or any guidance on that? Thank you.
I think this time I'm going to give Richard two of those, and I'll take the Euros one, which is definitely one of my specialist subjects, if that's all right. So, the Euros was—it was really interesting. So, it didn't have a material impact on the Grosvenor estate, actually. Some of our casinos benefit from big sporting events and some of them don't. It varies by venue. It's about available space and the quality of facilities and some we have for sports viewing. So we maximize the benefit where we can, and we have some. We recognize that, you know, when England played the quarterfinal on a Saturday, I think the semifinal was on a Wednesday, and the final was on a Sunday.
So kind of certainly two of those are pretty peak trading hours for us. So, definitely swings and roundabouts. Across the piece, I'd say for Grosvenor, no bearing whatsoever. In Mecca, it was really interesting. So we definitely suffered on those big England nights. We definitely suffered. South of the border, so north of the border, on those big England nights, we had bumper days. I mean, we had bumper evenings because, Scottish fans, the last thing they wanted to do was to stay at home and watch England, so they were much happier coming out to play Bingo. So we had a super few nights, actually, in July, north of the border.
You know, we are Mecca's a super strong brand in Scotland, and we did very well as a consequence, and our customers came and had a marvelous time and went back to find that England had actually beaten Switzerland after all, but there we are. So that's it, that was it in and around. I think digitally, we had a super strong Q4. We've continued that into this year. Sportsbook is still a minor part of what we do, so we don't get the same benefit as other operators. But nonetheless, when I look at the published numbers in the market, our Digital business performed very well in Q4, and is continuing to perform very well in the opening six weeks of this year, so no concerns in that regard.
I'll take the dividend one first. So, yes, that would be a very reasonable assumption to assume one-third, two-thirds. And we are cognizant of the fact that we started at a modest level, so we can expect it to grow from these levels going forward. Enracha is already delivering good levels of operating profit per venue. So while I expect operating revenue and operating profit to improve further going forward, will the profit far outstrip the revenue growth? Probably not. So can it grow ahead of revenue growth? Yes, but probably not to a huge extent.
Greg, mate, if that's okay.
Yeah. Morning, Greg Johnson, Shore Capital. Just a couple of questions. On Grosvenor and the GBP 7 million a week revenue target. Obviously, good momentum last year and progress at the start of this year. What need do you need to do to get to the GBP 7 million from here? And given the progress to date, is the sort of pre-COVID levels of GBP 7.5 million a week a possibility? Secondly, in terms of the Digital business and the proposed disposals or exits of the non-priority brands and Passion Gaming, what is the margin contribution on that, that revenue, and how does that influence the margin targets over the medium term? Thank you.
I'll take the first question, and you can take, if you wouldn't mind, Richard, take the margin contribution from the disposals. Yeah, we were at GBP 5.8 million NGR per week. We averaged in FY 2023 to GBP 6.3 million in FY 2024 to whatever the number is, we, we exit this year at. We are super confident we can get the business to GBP 7 million, a bit beyond GBP 7 million, prior to the impact of the Gambling Act review. I think to GBP 7.5 million or GBP 7.5 million, yeah, GBP 7.5 million, where we were back in 2019 on a like-for-like basis, we've closed one casino since then, so I think it's GBP 7.5 million on a like-for-like basis.
Can we get there? I think we probably can. It is a, it's a somewhat different regulatory environment now to what it was, to what it was before 2019, and, you know, the construct of affordability was emerging in 2019, and that has created a different kind of environment for us operationally. And, you know, that construct of requiring to be clear, not just about money laundering, but now about affordability at a customer level, has, has... But we're improving bit by bit by bit our processes our systems and the skill set and mindset of our colleagues is improving at how we manage customer risk.
So I think 12 months ago, I would probably would have said here, stood here, that GBP 7.5 million to get back to that level per week is a tough ask in what is a different regulatory environment. I am more confident now, so I can see clear line of sight to getting to GBP 7 million a week. Can we get beyond that? I think we can, and clearly then, the benefit of the Gambling Act review, when it comes through, is on top of that. One of the key things I'd say about the Gambling Act review, you know, just to remind everybody, our customer proposition is determined by statute.
So, you know, that doesn't – that's not true of most businesses, but what we deliver to the consumer is determined in Whitehall and then Westminster, and so therefore, we need statutory review. We need a review in legislation in order to change and ensure that proposition is kept up to date for the consumer, and this one, this experiment has taken since, you know, 2005, the timing of the last Gambling Act. So it is long overdue. We are super close and confident that under Labour government it will be delivered.
So disposal of Passion Gaming generated GBP 3.8 million revenues last year and was broadly profit neutral. So by definition, disposing of that business will marginally improve the operating margin, but it's not particularly material. The multi-brand or non-proprietary business generated GBP 15.5 million pounds worth of revenues, which were broadly in line with the digital margin overall. Albeit the revenues have been under pressure a bit more recently. So again, probably a very minor improvement in operating margin from disposing of that business, but I wouldn't describe either of them as too material to the margin target that we've laid out.
Do we have any more questions, if not in the room, or we'll come to any questions online?
So we've got one question from David at Goodbody. He's asking: How do you expect the GBP 132 million net debt post-lease number to trend going forward?
Good question. So it all depends on some of the timings of when we extend the leases. So at the moment, it's just under 4x our average rental payments. Could I see that getting to around 5x over the course of the next 12, 18, 24 months? Yes, I could. So it's probably about a 1x increase against rental payments, but it does depend a little bit on when we actually extend those leases and the conversations we have with the landlords.
Thank you. We currently have no questions from the webcast, so I'll hand back over to you for closing remarks.
Great! Many thanks, everybody. Oh, Greg. Apologies. Matt, if you would.
So it's for... Oh, yes, of course. Thank you. Yeah, Greg, from Shore Capital, again. Just follow up on that lease question in terms of the property extensions. Is this a handful of casinos where the leases have come back or sort of got close to needing to be re-signed? Or is it sort of on Bingo, that the outlook for the Bingo business is stronger today than maybe feared a couple of years back?
It's predominantly casinos that they're now starting to get into the point where there's a few years left on the lease. Actually, security of tenure is important to us. They're strategically important properties, so it's the right thing to do to extend them out for a longer period of time.
And Bingo?
We still retain good flexibility, actually, over the leases in Bingo. There are one or two that we'll have extended over the course of the next 12 months. But we've got good flexibility, but good relationships with the landlords, so nothing material I wouldn't have said on that side.
I want to make sure there are any other questions in the room, or we will. Thank you for your time this morning. Much appreciated. It's a busy morning. Many thanks for taking the time, and to those joining us online, many thanks too, and we will look forward to seeing you all when we come to the half year. Many thanks indeed.