Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the SkyCity Entertainment FY 2022 interim results announcement. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you'll need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Given the time limitations, we please ask you to limit to one question per person. I'd like to now hand the conference over to CEO Michael Ahearne. Please go ahead.
Kia ora. Thank you, operator, and welcome everyone to the SkyCity Entertainment Group first half 2022 results investor call. With me today on the line in Auckland is Julie Amey, our Chief Financial Officer, and Ben Kay, General Manager of Strategy and Investor Relations. Our first half 2022 presentation was released to the stock exchange earlier this morning and is a comprehensive document. We're gonna take the document as read and hence focus on key themes and our observations across the period and leave time for Q&A. Turning to the key features for the first half. I wanted to make some initial comments before asking Julie to provide an update on our financials and outlook. The first half was an unprecedented period due to the significant disruption from COVID-19 on our land-based casinos.
The pandemic continued to present challenges for SkyCity, but as CEO, I'm really proud of how the team has stood up again in response. The COVID-19 settings and related property closures in New Zealand and Adelaide had a material impact on our financial performance during the period, with the group only modestly EBITDA positive and reporting a net loss at NPAT. Our flagship property in Auckland was closed for 107 days, and similarly, Hamilton and Queenstown closed for lengthy periods. When able to open, operated under capacity limits and restrictions around social distancing. Our Adelaide property, while remaining open for the majority of the period, had to operate in a highly restrictive environment due to COVID-19 settings, interstate border closure, and then the emergence of the Omicron variant prior to Christmas, which materially impacted again on CBD visitation.
Table games performance in particular has been impacted by COVID restrictions. Management continued to take steps in response to the COVID-19 disruptions with a focus on cost and CapEx control and initiatives to support our balance sheets, including securing covenant waivers, relief from our financiers to address the significant earnings hit experienced over the period. We maintained a flexible operating model over the period focused on customer experience and engagement. Even when we were closed, We were contacting and engaging with our customers and focusing on our highest returning businesses. Clearly, a continued priority for management and the board has been the health and well-being of our staff and customers. We took a leadership position in the hospitality and leisure industry of requiring vaccination certificates and worked diligently to ensure a safe environment to operate in to give our customers the confidence to return to our venues.
Amazingly, when able to operate during the period, the domestic businesses, particularly local gaming, remained resilient. July and the first half of August across the New Zealand properties were particularly strong following on from the momentum from the fourth quarter of the previous year. Performance in December 2021 when we reopened was encouraging. Of note was the record New Year's Eve EGM revenue achieved in Auckland and Hamilton. More specifically, trading in Auckland in December at the red setting under New Zealand's COVID-19 Protection Framework was solid, particularly from EGMs, with performance comparable to that experienced when at alert level two during FY 2021. Regrettably, Adelaide has not had the opportunity to deliver on its potential during the period, primarily due to COVID-19 disruption, which impacted significantly on its financial performance.
However, the hotel has performed well relative to the market and EGMs, while it should be said that our expectations are significantly higher for this business over the medium term, It delivered stable share of 8% in a market that is growing at a double-digit rate. The performance of the online casino was a highlight of the period, with strong revenue and EBITDA growth despite the operational constraints and an increasingly competitive landscape. We experienced strong growth in active customers. Our online casino has quickly become a meaningful earnings contributor to the group, approximately NZD 7 million worth of EBITDA in the half.
An exciting feature of the period was announcing the expansion of our strategic partnership with Gaming Innovation Group, having committed to provide EUR 25 million of new equity to support the funding of GiG's acquisition of Sportnco, in return becoming a major shareholder and having a representative join the main GiG board. GiG is an established online operator we have come to know well since partnering in mid-2019 to launch our online casino. The partnership has provided us with access to a complementary and high-growth gaming category and has enabled us to pursue an omni-channel strategy in New Zealand, which is a core pillar of our group strategic plan. The combined GiG Sportnco business will be licensed or certified in over 20 jurisdictions, including key growth markets such as the U.S., Canada, and Latin America.
We view the transaction as strategic and a relatively low-cost, low-risk exposure to the fastest-growing segment of our industry globally. Inorganic opportunities like this one that fit our strategic plan don't come around often, and we felt that the time was right for us to consolidate on our strategic alliance with GiG. We continue to support regulation of New Zealand and expect clarity from the New Zealand government in this half as regards to their intentions to regulate online gaming. We continue to believe that a significant omni-channel opportunity exists for SkyCity if the New Zealand online market regulates, given the size of an addressable market which already exists in New Zealand, which is expected to grow significantly, and the unique SkyCity opportunity SkyCity has to offer an integrated offline, online experience to our customers.
Moving briefly on to the NZICC Horizon Hotel in Auckland, the project remains complex with reinstatement progressing post the fire. We're expecting the Horizon Hotel and the NZICC to be delivered in 2024 and 2025 respectively. As previously said, we are pursuing a significant AML enhancement program across the group focused on continuous improvement. We continue to have regular dialogue with AUSTRAC as we progress the program. Management remains fully committed to the enhancements, which includes new senior AML resourcing now in place in New Zealand and Adelaide, improved governance and investment on ICT systems and AML processes, among others. We continue to respond to the AUSTRAC enforcement investigation of Adelaide. We're fully cooperating with AUSTRAC and sharing information as required. The timetable for completion of the investigation remains unclear, but we expect it could be some time before the process reaches a conclusion.
I'm now gonna ask Julie to make some comments on our financials and recent trading before I close.
Michael, and to everyone on the call. As you would have seen from our announcement, the group reported a normalized net loss of NZD 19.5 million for the six-month period. This material reduction from PCP is due to the significant impact on the group from COVID-19 that Michael has already referred to. It's been a very tough period for the group, particularly with our Auckland business closed for 107 days. However, I do want to mention a few of the positives that have helped us to offset this result and preserve our balance sheet. The group's loss was offset in part by actions taken by management in the first half of the year to reduce our spend levels and secure COVID relief.
These decisions were made with a focus on ensuring the integrity of the group's business model that is quite fundamental to our future business performance and our customer experience. We also significantly reduced our operational CapEx with some NZD 45 million of savings in the first half of the year against where we expected our spend levels to be. This, coupled with some other cash initiatives to have further contributed to our balance sheet strength. During the first half of the year, we were also particularly pleased by the continued resilience of our EGM business segment. December, in particular, shows indications of a strong recovery with our group's EGM performance overall, only some 18% below PCP, despite Auckland actually operating under a red setting during December.
As Michael has shared, we've also seen some strong performance from our online casino, with financial performance making a meaningful contribution and a welcome offset to the COVID downsides that are impacting our land-based casino, which also reinforces the opportunity that the omni-channel brings to the group. Although it does seem like a long time ago, we did start full year 2022 in a strong position, with New Zealand business performance continuing the trend from the last quarter of 2021 during the weeks prior to the New Zealand lockdown, with performance exceeding our expectations. You may recall that for the full year results announcements, W ere on a pathway of earnings to return to our full year 2019 levels.
From a balance sheet perspective, we we're able to remove considerable funding risk for the group in the first half of the year by working with our financier partners to secure debt covenant waivers for the 31st of December period. While we were very pleased that the group was able to pass the standard covenant tests for full year, for the half year 2022, we still believe that securing the waivers was the right thing to do, given the significance of the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and of course the governmental responses that continue to remain outside of our control. Moving now to our outlook. We've now entered another period of uncertainty with the government again moving New Zealand into the red setting restrictions from 23rd of January. This is only after Auckland being in an Orange setting for about 3 weeks.
As highlighted on slide 30 of the presentation, our New Zealand gaming business has actually performed quite well while operating under the Orange setting in January, with activity being comparable to pre-COVID levels. While Adelaide's performance remained quite subdued in January as the state navigated its COVID peak, business performance is now showing indications of recovery as the state's restrictions are being eased and the CBD visitation is increasing. We were also very pleased to see the announcements and activities to enable the reopening of the borders for both Australia and New Zealand. Although our expectation is that the ramp up in our New Zealand tourism businesses will be cautious.
On top of all of this, there still remain many uncertainties for our business, including how long New Zealand will remain in the red setting and whether the Omicron variant will have a materially detrimental impact on the behaviors of our customers and the health and well-being of our staff. We do, however, expect that our businesses will remain open during the second part of the year. As a result of all of that, We continue to monitor our operational performance and customer visitation daily in order to deepen our understanding and to enable us to refine the multiple scenarios that we are running to stress test our financial resilience through the second half of 2022.
Of course, Our cost and saving initiatives that we spoke about in the first half of the year remain a key focus for the group into the foreseeable future as we navigate through these challenges and the pathway back to full year 2019 earnings levels. Based on our current scenarios and assumptions and our current business performance, we believe that the group's outlook and liquidity levels should remain sufficient to sustain the business and ensure we remain compliant with our financing obligations. However, due to the extent of the uncertainties that are out of our control, we are not able to provide a detailed guidance on earnings yet at this time. Now we'll hand over to Michael, who will share his closing remarks.
We are very focused on ensuring that we maintain the operating and corporate capability to quickly grow our business as we emerge from COVID and take advantage of the recovery of local customer sentiment, CBD reactivation, particularly Adelaide and Auckland, and domestic and international tourism recovery. Looking out beyond FY 2022, there's no material changes to our medium-term outlook and our target to return to FY 2019 earnings levels of approximately NZD 300 million EBITDA when fully operational and then grow from there. Our performance when open and trading with no restrictions gives us confidence in the earnings potential for the business and that we should trade similarly when visitation normalizes. In summary, a really challenging period, but our key priorities as a management team remain unchanged.
We have an absolute focus on continuing to navigate through the ongoing uncertainty of the COVID-19 operating environment while ensuring our financial resilience and ability to manage the balance sheet and set the business up for success over the medium term to grow earnings and hence shareholder value. Last but not least, I wanted to personally thank all of our investors and shareholders, both on this call and more widely, for their ongoing support. With that, I'm going to pause and open to questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up your handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Matt Ryan from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Thank you. I just had a question on the cost base and how you're dealing with, I guess, the challenges of the changing restrictions at the moment. Probably just curious about the labor costs and sort of how you're going with sort of planning around those sudden changes. just as a follow-on to that, there were quite a few comments around the Adelaide margins and perhaps some higher fixed costs in that business as opposed to the expansion. Just how long you think those costs will remain an issue for that property?
On the first question, it's a challenging time, but we made the decision to actually retain our employee base through this period. You'll recall a year and a half or so ago, we did a restructure, and our numbers came down. Our numbers have stayed at a similar sort of level. We have about 4,000 headcount as we speak. So that's remained pretty static. We've got some flexibility. But right now we flex on restaurants, for example. Some restaurants are open, some are not in Auckland. As we head into this period, now we're dividing the business into teams. R eally important that we have our security function able to open and operate surveillance.
Those teams are absolutely critical for us. We flex our labor forces around to ensure, you know, the number one priority is we keep our gaming businesses open, and then we flex around food and beverage. You would typically see in Auckland right now is the majority of our restaurants are open at the weekends, but midweek many of our restaurants aren't open, and certainly lunchtime many of the restaurants aren't open.I in relation to Adelaide margins and the cost moving around in many ways across from inflation is one. Our long-term view on Adelaide is that we'll get a 20% margin there.
While there's some additional cost there, we still have to keep to that view.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Larry Gandler from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Thanks, Michael and Julie. Just a few questions from me. Looking at Auckland, the revenue closed 107 days, obviously, but the revenue per day was quite high, not higher perhaps than it was in 2019. I'm just wondering if, thinking about sort of as we go into the second half, will you expect to be open for the full half. Do you expect the revenue intensity per day to diminish, or do you think it'll be kind of at that level that we saw in this first half?
Good question, Larry. It's a pretty complex one. T he halves are very different because in this half that we've just had with some periods, July and August, where revenue was really at very high levels, record levels actually, in fact. December came back reasonably strong. As we look into this half, we had three weeks in Orange, and now we're in Red for a period of time. Then we should come out of that and be at Orange. It's sort of mixed. You can't look. The two halves will be quite different.
Perhaps while you're open then, in the second half because of the restrictions, it might be a bit softer on a per day basis. I know you're not saying that. I'm just thinking out loud there.
Just to give you some color, probably. The actually red setting, In recent times in the Omicron version of red, our trading levels have been somewhere in the region 30%-40% of normal earnings levels. To give you a bit of a color on what's happening right now.
Thanks, that helps. Julie, maybe a question for you. The COVID subsidies, I don't think any were received in Australia, but if there were, maybe you can shed light on that. Can you sort of walk through where in the business which divisions those COVID subsidies are impacting the results, maybe next year I can normalize for those?
Thanks for the question. No, we didn't receive any COVID support for Australian businesses. In New Zealand, it was just for Auckland and Hamilton, when they were closed. Our corporate-
Okay.
office, when it was impacted.
Can you give the quantum for those two casinos?
We received 17 in total, which 13 was Auckland.
Okay, great. Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Sacha Krien from Evans & Partners. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Michael and Julie. First question for you. Just wondering how the three weeks under the orange setting compared to trading in July and August. It's a little bit hard to tell from the chart that's in the pack.
The orange setting was largely in line with what we would call the previous level. That was level one, normal. Pretty strong local gaming in particular. The trends are usually always the same. Gaming machines is the strongest, followed by tables and then hospitality, weaker. We were encouraged by the EGM business quickly got back to sort of normal levels.
Got it. I think you mentioned that you were running ahead of FY 2019 in earnings levels in July and August. No w you've got in the presentation today that you've got a medium-term target of returning to FY 2019, which is understandable, but I guess the question I have is there any reason why you wouldn't return to that run rate of about FY 2019 earnings when restriction ends? Has anything changed between that July and August period until now?
I suppose we always go back to FY 2019 because it was the last period that we actually were open fully and you know, a reasonable level of trading. Like, our aspirations actually go beyond that. Getting back there is our first step. You're right, in terms of if I look to April, May, June, July, and the first half of August that trading levels was probably above that level.
The last result you mentioned that you're expecting structurally higher margins post-COVID. There's a few references to sort of wage inflation and AML enhancements in the pack today. Has anything changed in terms of that margin guidance or margin expectation post-COVID?
Generally there's more inflationary pressure, A cross the board now than there was when we probably made those statements. We're working out how we deal with and push through the business. W e certainly expect to get back to comparable EBITDA margins. Our aspiration will be to have higher margins, but there is just general inflationary pressure that all businesses are dealing with right now.
How much is around AML enhancements contributing to that?
Look, it's not material, to be honest. Th e key factors on that would be wages, wage growth really over a period of the next period of what will that be. We're also seeing through supply chain, W here food costs, inputs and so on. Now, you can pass that onto pricing into food and beverage. It's across the board.
Got it. Okay. I'll leave it to someone else to ask some questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from David Fabris from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, Michael. Hi, Julie. Th inking about this DIA review, Y ou're talking about some clarity expected in the first half of calendar year 2022. Look, if the legislation change is favorable, can you kind of help us understand the CapEx requirements to onshore the business? And then maybe talk through the earnings opportunity, relative to where the business is today. Y ou identified a NZD 300 million revenue market. Can you just kind of walk through that for us, please?
Sure. Thanks, David. So the DIA review and the DIA review into input into government has been delayed because of COVID. Which is disappointing but understandable. The work is actually completed and we'd expect within six months a decision will be made on how to go forward. the outcome of that, we don't know. The outcome we're looking for is regulation but an outcome could be they don't decide to do that. But if they go forward with regulation, there'll be a consultation process and a process that's actually gonna form the legislation, and that's gonna take some time to be honest. Th at would be certainly more than a year.
That could be 18-24 months, potentially, for the legislation in place and the new businesses are up and running. That would be, you know, reasonably normal in other markets as well. In terms of the size of the prize when we look at the New Zealand market, our view now is that the addressable market today for online casinos is about NZD 300 million. With recent work done, that would suggest that that's gonna grow over the next 5-7 years to double up to NZD 600 million. Whether it's actually regulated or not, which is what's happening in markets around the world.
We're seeing this growth in online gaming, casino gaming, and sports betting, but I'm talking specifically about online casino gaming here. It's a significantly, addressable market. The shape of the market, then the question goes to what will our market share be in that? We believe we'll be in a very strong position. It will depend on how many operators are licensed, ultimately on what the exact share will be. That's the shape of the legislation and the framework the government puts around it will determine that's something we're obviously gonna be looking closely at when the government come out with their decision in the next steps.
Got you. Just to be clear, would there be a chunk of CapEx required to set up the business so that it's onshore?
Not significant. No, not really. we have a model. Technically, the model that we have set up now could be just reshaped to bring here. It's not a significant capital investment for us to move forward in this.
Okay, great. Just another question. Just thinking about the growth options, and look, you're selling that land in Queenstown. It sounds like the digital piece is some time away with the DA review and the implementation process. Is an expansion in Hamilton still possible or has that been iced? Would you consider M&A? Ea rnings will snap back, and I guess we're thinking about that additional growth that SkyCity could chase when framing this question.
Look, right now that's not really on our agenda. T hat's. there's Hamilton , We wanna get back to the earnings potential it has. Th at's not a priority for us right now, David.
Okay. Gotcha. Sorry, one final question. Can you just remind us on the Adelaide casino, just the management targets over the medium term? It looks like things are tracking a little bit better than expected when we think about growth rates relative to markets. Maybe just talk through those EBITDA management targets, please.
Look, the NZD 60 million has been the EBITDA number that we've sort of gone back to. I t's fair to say the shape of that might be a little bit different as we look forward. You can say the EGM market is definitely gonna be bigger than originally anticipated. table games has been a little bit more challenging in recent times. that's our target, as a team are working to.
Gotcha. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Justin Barratt from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks very much for your time. Look, I just wanted to ask about progress on NZICC. I've asked the question, I guess a few times before, so I don't wanna harp on the point. But it looks like NZICC, you've now stated it's gonna be due during 2025 rather than early 2025. How should we think about that project going forward? I guess how confident should we be that it should actually be ready in 2025?
Look, the dates are as per the current guidance by Fletcher, you know, 2024 and 2024 for hotel, 2025 for the convention center. You know, COVID is making it more complex. It's complex enough. COVID is making it more complex. W hat I'd say, there's significant work happening there. 650-700 people working on the ground there every day, and progress is being made. But it is complex and challenging. T hose dates are reflective of the program that we currently have from Fletcher. We are working closely with them to ensure that they are keeping on track. But you know, that's where.
Look, there is good progress and momentum on that project. things like roofs. The big-ticket items like roof, for example, all those things are dealt with now, and it's actually just a matter of procuring and actually building.
Fantastic. Then the other one I just wanted to ask you, in relation to the recent announcements on New Zealand borders, where borders looks like they could be not really fully open until much later this calendar year, do you have any concerns around, I guess, a really fulsome recovery in VIP, given that New Zealand may sort of trail, I guess, the globe in terms of reopening its borders at all?
Well, New Zealand definitely will trail with Labour in reopening its borders. I n terms of international tourism activity and international VIP activity in New Zealand, it certainly won't. I can't see that there will be any in the current financial year, and it'll start in the new year. It'll definitely be slower in Australia. there's no doubt about it. we won't have a full year next year of international tourism, T hat will be clear. There'll be a bit of a ramp up.
Fair enough. Thanks for your time.
No worries.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Marcus Curley from UBS. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Two questions. I just wondered if you can talk a little bit to the I suppose, the nature and scope of the AUSTRAC investigation. Has that changed at all in your mind given the current line of questioning you are receiving from AUSTRAC?
Look, Marcus, there's no change there, really. we're working on an uplift program for across the group and particularly in relation to Adelaide. As I mentioned in the presentation that we've hired some new people there, including a head of AML in the Adelaide business. We're you know meeting the obligations we have at AUSTRAC in terms of providing information. As you probably know, about six to nine months ago, we've said it could be up to two years. We're six months into that, so we don't really have any more information than
You wouldn't, I suppose with the line of questioning you're receiving at the moment is, you know, would you say that the scope of that has changed, from what you originally thought?
Not really. No, I wouldn't say it's changed. No. It's like the comprehensive line of information request, but which we're providing.
Okay. And then just secondly on the debt levels, maybe for Julie. A m I right in interpreting your statement as saying that you feel like you'll be able to meet the second half covenant test? If so, can you provide some details on what the covenant is and what the required EBITDA would need to be?
Thanks for the question. Based on the scenarios we are running with, which include our businesses being open, but some uncertainties around how Omicron will impact visitation, for example. We believe we have sufficient liquidity headroom at the moment and our ability to meet the waivers, the variation to the debt covenant that we have in place for 30th of June. In terms of the amount, I t varies because it's not a simple calculation. It does depend a lot on the balance sheet as well. S o I would be wrong to give you an EBITDA number because it is changing quite frequently because of the balance sheet changing as well.
We do believe that based on the current outlook we have, that we would be able to meet that covenant. The uncertainty we see is in some of the decisions made around whether we're open or closed, and then again on customer behavior and visitation.
Okay. Maybe I can stick one more in with the Australian borders reopening, could you talk a little bit about what plans you may have for reopening international VIP out of Adelaide, in the next six months?
It is good news in Australia, and Adelaide should be a beneficiary of that. I think our first step is the domestic VIP market, so Sydney, Melbourne, markets and targeting the customers there, bringing in. We've done a lot of work. The team's done a lot of work on AML and making sure we actually have the processes done pre-opening, so that the pre-work is done, so the customers can come. Any documentation they need in place is done. T he first step will be domestic and then international.
We have retained the capability, you know, and this is some of the team that we've kept and decided to keep over the last effectively two years that we'll see the benefit of. So, you know, we've got the facilities. It's now about getting some customers in there. I'd be anticipating that we'll see some international activity, particularly in the last quarter of this year in Adelaide.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Jason Walbridge from Jarden. Please go ahead.
Oh, good morning, team. It's actually Adrian from Jarden. Just first question for Julie. Just a follow-up to the way Marcus was asking around the covenant question. Just on the net debt side, like we can, like, and assuming what you said in the outlook statement around the property has been open. Like if we take a view on the EBITDA and you've been reasonably explicit on the CapEx. Is there anything in the working capital items in terms of timing that we should be sort of factoring in or if they're pretty normal should we therefore be expecting sort of the net debt to sort of hover a little higher and then maybe peak across the second half?
No, I don't think there's anything major there our big working capital item, as you can probably see in our financial statements, the one that swings is the NZICC insurance proceeds, which is quite a big amount which we're managing through. O ther than that, there's nothing else in there in terms of that you should take into consideration.
Okay. Thank you. Just maybe while I've got you as well, the corporate costs have also been reined in and the D&A's dropped, and some of that stuff I understand in both respect to the IT projects. Can you just give us a little bit of detail as to what's going on there in terms of which ones you've elected to delay relative to, I guess, your pre-disruption thinking?
In terms of the corporate costs, it does stand out that there's quite a big drop from their corporate costs and it's not a sustainable saving, we would say. What you see in the corporate costs coming out is, in addition to us taking the action across the group to defer some of our non-committed wage and salary increases, we released the bonus provision, of course, to rebaseline it to actually the performance of the business. There is a one-off amount in there for the release of the New Zealand holiday provision that we had on the back of a court case that was successfully negotiated by Metro Glass. We've now released some of the provision we were holding.
That's non-cash, but that's having about a NZD 4 million impact on those corporate costs. In terms of ICT costs, there is some savings. It's probably not a significant amount compared to some of the CapEx, because a lot of those costs are actually baseline, like for like costs being the maintenance on ICT on our systems. But there's just a couple of deferrals of a few pieces of activity there.
While I've got you, that's helpful. Can you just talk to the sort of drop in the D&A is down about NZD 10 million from when you last sort of guided.
D&A, I'm just wondering if that's the impairments. Is that excluding it? A part of that will be the impairments coming through.
Okay. Is that not-
I t's impairments on. I can come back to you on that.
Okay, no problem. Maybe just final one, just in terms of I guess you've used, like, when you talk about the NZICC project going slightly slower than expectation, is that kind of like the COVID disruption or is there other elements in there that are sort of making it? Fro m a SkyCity perspective, you said total cost is unchanged, but can you just give us a little bit more detail as to what those comments relate to?
Look, it's COVID. COVID is the complexity that's added to the complexity really in this period.
Okay. Understood.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Rohan Sundram from MST Financial. Please go ahead.
Afternoon, Michael and Julie. Just one housekeeping question, a follow-up on the corporate cost discussion earlier. Julie, in light of the second half run rate, it's still quite low compared to pre-COVID. Do you expect your cost base to get back to pre-COVID levels anytime soon?
Over the second half of the year, as I mentioned, we're still looking at our initiatives to reduce the cost as much as possible. That includes the timing of when we increase wages, salaries, the bonus calculations, of course, again. Also we're actually got quite a high level of vacancies, which we are selectively filling. I would expect there might be a slight increase, but I don't think it will be significant in the following second half of the year because we are still watching it very closely. We're managing it very tight. I did mention that one-off release of the provision, So, of course, that is something you need to ring-fence as well.
Just to confirm, is that in the first half or is that gonna come through in the second half? That release.
That's been booked in the first half.
Yeah.
The other piece, of course, is wage subsidy as well, which will be featuring here, there as well.
Okay. It sounds like the FY 2023 corporate costs will still be running at a rate lower than pre-COVID. Is that correct?
The second half of full year 2022 will be higher, but still lower than what we would call normal. In full year 2023, it will come back.
Understood.
We get back to sort of that mid-30s sort of number.
Thanks. that's what I'm getting. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Sacha Krien from Evans & Partners. Please go ahead.
I just had a quick follow-up question, one of which you answered with Rohan, but I just also wanted to ask, in terms of the covenant, I'm sure there are some reasonable scenarios where you don't meet that June 2022 tests. I'm just wondering what the process is?
As you get closer to that, it looks like you may miss it. What are your expectations of what you could negotiate to sort of get through that if it occurs.
Thanks for the question. Of course, we are watching this daily. I n a scenario, well, first of all, we have a great relationship with our financiers, and that is held true through even negotiating and agreeing the waivers that we have today. That was quite a straightforward process for us. We are, of course, talking to our financiers regularly, especially under the restrictions that we have. As we're monitoring this, and we want to get a couple more weeks of performance under our belt as well to understand, how we move those scenarios.
What we would be looking to do is talk, of course, especially to our financiers again, about what that would mean for them and how we would navigate it. 'Cause we have what we have at 30th of June is a variation. It's quite a strong variation, but it's not a waiver. That would be the piece that we would pick up with our financiers.
Okay. That's helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Matt Montgomerie from Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead.
How are you, guys? Maybe just on Adelaide. I was just wondering if it'd be possible to make some comments with respect to initiatives that you're putting in place to grow that EGM market share. H ow many more machines are yet to be deployed on the property? And what sort of gives you confidence in growing that to sort of 13%-14% as you've spoke to previously?
Look, to be honest, it's the same initiatives. I just think we've lost time in Adelaide. Like, the CBD has been significantly disrupted there. COVID-19 has been very disruptive. We haven't had a clean run, certainly in this half. We won't have a clean run, you know, the next couple of months either. heading into hopefully with the momentum coming out of the quarter. The initiatives that are in place, will largely be around marketing, and see. Well, first there's organic activity coming back, customers coming back into the CBD, and that just has not been played.
While customers will be going to clubs in the local regions, they haven't been willing to go to the CBD. That's an organic feature that should happen. It comes down to marketing, and we have a strong loyalty program there and leveraging that. Obviously, we've got the car park, which we haven't really seen the benefit of it at all yet. T he latest product, I wouldn't say additional machines. We could put additional product in the property. We'd love to get to the point where we needed to put more machines in there, but we got plenty of machines for even the targets you were talking about there.
That opportunity does exist if we need to do. We've done some work on actually expanding VIP facilities, so that we actually have more machines in our VIP areas, and as the market grows, more VIP should be created. We also have the benefit of a preferential tax rate in the VIP areas as well. That's a bit of color. I'll probably also add just the general property. The property has won you know, the hotel has won many awards over this period. Restaurants have won awards. It's a great proposition.
That local strategy that we're also seeing, you know, when we say domestic VIP, we're also targeting domestic VIP EGM play as well. All of that adds together to get us into that much larger EGM business.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Larry Gandler from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Hi. Yes, one follow-up from me. In your presentation, you called out that you think the online market's about NZD 300 million. In 2019, the New Zealand government survey of that online market was almost NZD 400 million. I'm just wondering. I know it hasn't gone backwards, but I'm just wondering how you coming up with your market size. Do you think it might be very conservative? Just curious there.
I'm thinking, Larry, that number 400 includes sports betting.
Okay.
The 300 I'm talking about is purely online casino. We use a company in the U.K. that specializes in sizing gray market casino markets around the world. They've been ones that have been guiding us on market size here. Now, it's not an exact science, so there's lots of projections.
Yeah.
Their view is this market moved from NZD 200 million-NZD 300 million over the last couple or three years. Y ou see numbers thrown around, and some of those include sports betting. When we talk about the number with offshore sports betting, we're talking about casino. I think that's what the difference is.
Okay. Fantastic. Thanks.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Michael Ahearne for closing remarks.
Thank you all for joining us this morning and afternoon and over the course of the next couple of days. Looking forward to interaction with you all. Thank you.
Thank you.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You now may disconnect.