I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Michael Ahearne, CEO. Please go ahead.
Good morning, welcome everyone to our First Half 2021 Results Investor Call. Great to be presenting my first result to you as Chief Executive, and a real privilege to be the CEO of SkyCity. I was formally welcomed as CEO by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei with a pōwhiri in Auckland early in February, which was an incredibly special occasion for me, and my family got to participate in it as well.
I've been in the CEO chair for a little over two months now. It's been pretty busy, really enjoying the role and looking forward to interacting with the investment community over the coming days, both in New Zealand and overseas. With me in the boardroom and in Auckland today is Rob Hamilton, Chief Financial Officer, and Ben Kay, General Manager of Strategy and Investor Relations, both of whom are well known to you.
This is Rob's 12th and final financial result delivered as Chief Financial Officer. He finishes up with us on Friday week. Rob has been an outstanding Chief Financial Officer of SkyCity, and I'd like to acknowledge the skills, commitment that he's brought to the role, and I wish him the very best for the future.
Clearly, an immediate priority for me has been to implement the new management structure and bed down the team, as well as obviously navigating the uncertainty arising from COVID-19, and we're again struck with that this week. We shut our business in Auckland on Sunday evening, a really busy Valentine's evening, and with Chinese New Year activity in full swing. We reopened it today, midday, it reopened at level 2 operating. It will be opening in just under an hour.
Moving on from COVID briefly, it is great to be able to have made a series of announcements regarding the management team. This morning, you will have seen our new CFO, Julie Amey, commenced with us at the beginning of May. Julie brings significant global experience in senior financial roles, with the Shell organization and with some other organizations as well.
Julie is a New Zealander coming home, and really excited to have her on the team. Also, over the course of the past month or so, you will have seen I have bedded down our operating structure within the business, appointing Callum Mallett as COO New Zealand, Matt Ballesty as Chief Casino Officer for the group, and David Christian as the COO for our Australian business.
I'd also like to say, look, I'm pleased that we will have continuity in the investor relations role with Ben Kay, and Ben is taking on some additional responsibility leading our strategy function and will be working closely with myself and Julie when she comes on board. Look, I'm really confident that we have a great leadership group to take the business forward and looking forward to some time, hopefully in the year ahead, that we are able to have an investor day in person, and you can meet the team in person.
I think while we're thinking of that planning, obviously it's COVID independent and requires the border to be open and so on. Our first half 2021 presentation was released earlier this morning. I know that you all have it. It's a comprehensive document.
I'm going to take the document as read and then focus on the key highlights, themes, and observations across the period, and leave time for Q&A. Moving to slides seven through nine, let me talk through the results. Look, as flagged, the group has been significantly impacted by COVID-19 disruptions and ongoing border closures with normalized and reported EBITDA down 22% and 63% respectively.
However, despite the challenging environment, we're reasonably pleased with the quality of the results overall, which was above expectations at the start of the financial year. To put the operation challenges in a little bit of context, we experienced 19 days of being closed in Auckland during the period, over a month of alert level 2 in New Zealand, and a full six months of significant operating restrictions in Adelaide, including a four-day period in late November of being closed.
The team have got used to managing this uncertainty, again, as proven in the last couple of days, certainly demonstrated resilience and commitment. We have a comprehensive COVID management plan that deals with moving between three, two, and one of the various alert levels, both in New Zealand and in Australia.
Our tourism businesses, in particular in Auckland, have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 disruption and international border closures, which we do expect to continue for the foreseeable future. A little bit of context around that. The profitability of the hotel business in New Zealand is effectively half of what it was in H1 2020. Food and beverage is effectively a break-even result at a contribution level in Auckland. Obviously, attractions like Sky Tower have been materially impacted.
IB continued to trade at a modest loss, but this has been reduced versus our expectations early in the year due to cost savings and some interstate tables activity that we've seen post opening of the expansion in Adelaide. We've recently commenced a review of our deed to consider key operational and regulatory financial settings for the future, and considering the recommendations from New South Wales Casino Inquiry and determine awards as part of this review.
As flagged at the UBS Investor Conference in November, it's pleasing our domestic gaming business, which is the key value driver in the group, has continued to be resilient and perform well when open, particular EGMs. We've also seen the operating model bear down and deliver good cost execution. We continue to see good levels of play from local premium customers, consistent with the trend in second half 2020.
Certainly, the investments we've made in the VIP facilities in Auckland helps us there. We're benefiting from new product in Auckland and Hamilton as well, and certainly a stronger domestic consumer environment than we would have expected earlier in the year. Hamilton and Queenstown, in particular, delivered strong results underpinned by EGM activity and cost savings, with EBITDA growth of 22% and 50% in the half.
Auckland EGM performance at around 95% of the PCP on a like-for-like basis was the highlight at our key property, demonstrating the stable and resilient features of this business, with table games activity improving month-on-month as restrictions ease. The cost base has been pretty well managed, pretty happy with that following the operating model changes that we made last year. We have seen good momentum in the business prior to this closure we just had in Auckland.
Might refer you to slide 10 in the deck. We present the performance across our three properties for the period July to October 2020, which is the same as when we presented at the UBS conference in November, then have been updated to include the black bars on the chart, which is November 13th to February 2021 on a like-for-like basis. What you can see is that performance has progressively improved across each category at each property over the period.
Local gaming activity for the period November to February across the business was in line or above the TTP, which is pleasing. We've seen broad-based improvements in performance in Adelaide, post opening of the new expansion, which I'll talk to later in the call. I want to get you to refer to slides 17, 18 in terms of group strategy and my own priorities as CEO.
What I've presented here is really a high-level view on how I'm thinking about strategy for the business, and on the investor day that we're going to plan, when we can, we'll be able to get into the detail of this. What I will say is that we have privileged assets, monopolies or incredibly strong positions of high-quality regulated gaming jurisdictions, which allows us to have long-term strategic planning.
What I would describe the strategy is not materially different to that what I've inherited, but I've increased the emphasis on optimizing our core business, which now does include online gaming, online casino gaming, and lifting returns on cash flows, return on capital. The strategic plan focuses on three core pillars, which I'll deal with. So firstly, operational excellence at our core.
That is running the businesses that we have today, focusing on continuous improvement in operational performance and investments to support that. Local gaming is a key driver of the group. It has always been, and it will be in the future. Focusing on maximizing the value of those exclusive licenses that we have. Important to navigate through uncertainty of COVID, and I don't underestimate this, both the challenge and the scale and the timing on this.
The real opportunity and the real focus is to return our business to FY19 earnings when fully operational, and then with aspiration to grow well beyond that over the medium term. We will be investing in improving our marketing and loyalty execution through technology as well. I think any capital development, certainly in the shorter medium, will be focused on the existing assets and particularly on our core gaming propositions.
The second pillar in terms of completing our major projects and optimizing asset portfolio, obviously critical to complete the major investments that we have, and great to see that Adelaide has opened, is running. [guess Manning] is complete, but the project itself is largely complete and now it is about execution there. Obviously, NZICC and Horizon Hotel, getting those complete within the budget that we have outlined, that is a major strategic priority for us.
The third pillar, pursuing the omnichannel opportunity. We do have a unique opportunity to monetize omnichannel and consolidate our leadership position in the gaming industry, particularly in New Zealand. It has quickly become a meaningful part of our business, which you will see in our results, and it offers us an exciting long-term opportunity.
It's important to start planning today for the potential integration of land-based and online businesses. Underpinning all of that, it's really important that our culture of our organization is right and focused in the right areas, and I'd call out to our continuing to focus on our social license, responsible gaming, AML, community. We are part of the community in everywhere we operate.
That's really important. We engage in the right way and we integrate in the right way, and sustainability. You'll see more about those as we move forward. As I mentioned earlier, taking role there, and we're working on developing a strategic framework to ensure we've got discipline and accountability about both the development and the execution of our strategic plan. Turning to our major projects, and I might get you to refer to slide 22.
Really pleased to say that Adelaide expansion has completed on time and on budget. Performance prior to expansion opening by COVID-19 and construction disruption was what I would describe as stable. A like-for-like basis, domestic gaming was pretty similar to the previous period. Our new product is certainly a world-class product, and the response from customers so far has been really strong, great feedback.
What I'd say to everybody on the call, all of the Aussies, make sure you take a weekend out and go and visit us and put plenty of money in your pocket and have a great time at our property. We significantly expanded our gaming and entertainment facilities, I've just outlined on slide 23 just a little bit of detail now on what the final product looks like right now and where we'll end up as we finalize some new areas to open.
It's been a positive performance post-opening. We've outlined that in slide 24. I would caution it is early days yet, really encouraging signs across all parts of the business with local gaming revenue up 33% versus the pcp period. The new hotel and food and beverage facilities have been incredibly well-received by customers.
The local team in Adelaide have done a tremendous job opening the property in what was a pretty challenging time to open that business. We've also seen good cost-to-keep execution in the initial period. That's been a real focus of the team. Benefiting also from the lower effective tax rate due to a higher mix of premium gaming activity with the new VIP facilities that we have there. There's also several positive catalysts ahead.
We expect to take the possession of 750 car park spaces from the start of FY 2022, and obviously, borders opening more meaningfully, expect to be able to address the interstate and international market over time. I'd also say based on the performance post-opening, we remain comfortable with the medium-term EBITDA targets for the property that we previously outlined. Only a small amount of CapEx now remaining that's to be spent there, and looking forward to seeing strong cash conversion on the property going forward.
On NZICC, so Horizon Hotel, the reinstatement is progressing post the fire, but slower than anticipated. The date that we expect completion, the hotel first half 2022, and NZICC completion by the end of 2023. We remain comfortable with our contractual position with Fletcher. We've recently settled some pre-fire claims with Fletcher to be able to pass to work collaboratively towards completion.
No change to expected total project cost of around NZD 750 million, of which we've got about 20% left to spend, excluding the reinstatement cost from the fire, which are expected to be funded by insurance. Just some comments on online gaming, it's an exciting feature of our results in the half where that business is now delivering a reasonable return, even from an EBITDA point of view.
Fantastic to see a business which is a startup really actually cash flow positive in a really short amount of time and contributing about NZD 5 million of EBITDA in the half year. We're now at about 30,000 actives, that continues to grow. Look, we're continuing to optimize the site with GiG. The product and the experience customers are getting on our online and through mobile has improved significantly over the past 12 months, but six months as well.
Despite the operational constraints that we've put on the business in terms of particularly in relation to marketing, we've seen a significant increase in revenue and the EBITDA that I mentioned. Trading's pretty consistent now month-on-month, following a significant increase in customer registrations and first-time depositors from March 2020, around the time of the first lockdown. We remain obviously very supportive of regulation in New Zealand.
The DIA policy review into online gaming is continuing, and we expect to hear updates from the DIA continuing over the next few months. Globally, online gaming, whether it's sports betting or online casino gaming, is a global theme when we look to the U.S. and the opening up that's happened there. Probably worth also highlighting online gaming companies are consistently trading at significantly higher premiums than the land-based casinos due to the structural global outlook.
Again, look, really excited about this part of our business as we look forward. From a capital management point of view, I think we refer to back to slide 15. Rather than can take questions later on, I'm happy to make some high-level observations. The balance sheet is in a much better position today than we expected at the time we raised equity in mid 2020, and funding finance risk is effectively taken off the table for shareholders.
We very much have sufficient liquidity at around NZD 465 million as of December 2020 to respond to further COVID-19 disruptions are on the track for a gradual economic recovery in New Zealand and Australia. Our major projects are fully funded and focused on execution.
Balance sheet capacity can be reviewed when we're no longer in reliance on covenant waivers relief and the domestic and international environment becomes more certain. We expect to comply with financial covenants at 30 June testing period, assuming there's no prolonged property closures. In relation to final dividends, we're obviously not paying a dividend for the half year.
We expect to pay a final dividend in the year in September or October. That does assume no prolonged property closures. We do appreciate the support of shareholders who have understood the need for us to preserve capital during this period. A review of the dividend policy has been undertaken by the board in the half, and a preference for greater flexibility than what existed under the previous policy has come out of that review.
We're targeting a payout ratio of between 60%-90% of normalized profit per annum as we look forward, and intend to progressively increase dividends over time as earnings grow. In terms of outlook, the business has been performing better than expected prior to the current closure in Auckland. At this point, we're not changing our previous guidance for FY 2021. The outlook does remain uncertain, and it's subject to change.
That is the reality, and I think the last couple of days have just re-emphasized that. We intend to provide more detailed guidance when we get more certainty. Potentially, the Macquarie May Conference may be the opportunity to do that. What I would say is that our local gaming business continues to perform well when open, particularly in EGMs, and we've seen that consistently, and you've seen that in the presentation here.
Our tourism-related businesses continue to be significantly impacted by operational restrictions and international border closures. We also expect that to continue until we see a change in international borders, which we do expect to remain closed for the foreseeable future. I'm going to pause there and open to questions.
Thank you. Your first question comes from Chelsea Leadbetter from Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Morning, Michael and team. I guess just coming back to Adelaide, and I appreciate the color you've given us in terms of how things have started, but just trying to understand a little bit about how to think about the profile from here, and I appreciate we're in an uncertain backdrop, etc., but do you think there's been a boost from the sort of opening kickstart sort of effect that we start to see it settle back before you can have, I guess, a better exposure to tourists and whatever else down the track?
Or do you think the level that you started at is just sort of a keep chipping away and keep continuing to hopefully take some market share from?
Yeah. Look, Chelsea, the first thing I'd say is what you're seeing there is domestic activity. It's largely South Australian activity across the property that we're seeing that initial trading period. As Australia's become more, travel more and we market more, we'd expect to see more domestic activity. It is early days. We're monitoring it on a daily, weekly basis. I would say over that period, the activity's been pretty consistent.
It's been pretty consistent, the growth that we've seen across the period through November and January. It is early days. The game and the EGM performance looks pretty good, and our local VIP gaming performance has been pretty good. There's plenty of upside in the hotel. We see similar trends that we see not only in Auckland, but any of the other properties. We see weekends are really busy.
The additional capacity we have, we certainly see the benefits of that Friday, Saturday, Sundays, and then off peak, a little bit softer. That is similar to all of these type of properties. Rob, anything else you want to do add?
I think that's covered it that well, Michael. Just to emphasize, we're obviously very pleased with how Adelaide has started. The team has done a great job there, to have the property open. It's great to see the initial visitation coming through, which is really highlighted through in terms of the gaming and non-gaming performance. As Michael said, early days, it has given us the confidence to reaffirm the longer-term guidance which we previously put out on the Adelaide property.
Okay. No, I appreciate that. Maybe sitting back at the group level, if we think back maybe six, 12 months ago, obviously quite a pressure period in terms of taking costs out, et cetera, in the business and clearly performing better than you thought back in the depths of lockdowns, et cetera. Have you put back a portion of those costs now, or should we be expecting you to be putting more in the next six months ahead?
Look, some costs have come back into the business as you'd expect as the activity recovers. Not what we took out. I think our operating model does see less marketing activity going on, marketing costs, and I think what we see is that's pretty sustainable. We have hired more people in gaming, for example. We've about maybe 150 more heads than we had at our lowest point. We're being pretty cautious in our approach there. We don't envisage that we're going to add back all the costs that we've taken out. Certainly, that's not what I think is.
Okay, it sounds like you're still comfortable that you should be able to retain some of the margin benefits over time in terms of operating efficiencies and various things that you've been able to gain altogether so far.
Yeah. We think that is sustainable. It's difficult now because you don't have a clean period. You always have periods where you're shut or if you're level 2. It's actually very difficult to see a clean margin. What we see is when we do have a period of normality, we are seeing an underlying higher margin in each business unit if it's at a normal operating environment.
Okay. Just last question on Hamilton. Clearly continues to hit it out of the park in terms of performance. Just interested in how you think about the sustainability of where you're sitting at the minute, particularly with things like win rates in EGMs in that business.
Yeah, look, obviously we're pleased with the performance at Hamilton. I put it down to a couple of things. The significant changes we've made in the business there. That property, you walk in there today versus a year ago, it feels like a casino today. The product is substantially better. There's some structural changes we've made in layouts and product and pricing that definitely is sustainable.
The other is the economy there is very buoyant. The outlook there is really positive as well. Our view is what we're seeing there is a sustainable level of earnings for that business on an ongoing basis. It's not that there's a one-off customer win included in that number. That's not the case.
Chelsea, I just have one small note of caution. Obviously, once international borders do open up, you'd expect to see a few people from the Waikato wanting to get across to Australia and overseas. We've been fortunate to have a captive domestic market in the Waikato over the last or during the reporting period. Just a note of caution once borders do open up, which may impact FY22 slightly, but I don't think it's anywhere near sufficient to reverse the benefits that Michael's just highlighted.
Okay. No, I appreciate the color. Thanks. Thanks for your time.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Desmond Tsao from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gents. Thanks for taking my questions. I just had a couple of quick ones. Firstly, just on slide 10. Appreciate if you could perhaps give some color just around, I guess, the performance into the second half, so from January to mid-February. If you're able to sort of shed a bit more color on that would be great.
Look, what I would say is that it was pretty consistent. I would say what you see there is a progression over time in performance. The black bar pre up to October, then November. That's all continued and at that level 1. I think saying that we seem to progress. Customers get more confident gradually over time you see businesses recover. Table games is probably the interesting one. That's one that was going slow for quite some time, and we've seen that recover as well. I think you see a progressive ongoing improvement.
Yeah, just Ben Kay here. A comment that I would make looking at the analyzed period. If you focus, say, on Auckland, July and December were two months that we look at where we were at level 1, trading without restrictions, and Auckland at a property level delivered around NZD 20 million of EBITDA, which is broadly comparable to what we were doing pre-COVID. January was pretty similar to December, wasn't it, Michael, at Auckland? Looking at the analysis more broadly, the trends have been pretty consistent across each category, across each property, which has been pleasing.
I appreciate the additional color. Just secondly, I guess just around the full year guidance. You've reiterated the guidance that you gave out a few months ago. I think it's still framed around FY 2021 normalized EBITDA to be above FY 2020, but well below FY 2019 levels. That's despite the, I guess, better-than-expected first half FY 2021 performance. Just interested in the degree of conservatism baked in, just potentially around further closures, et cetera, to play out over the next four and a bit months.
Look, what I'd say is it's uncertainty. We just don't know. Are we shut at level 3? Are we at level 2 or we're at level 1? That has a major impact on earnings. You'll see that I'd refer back to the November shutdown. 19 days in Auckland cost us NZD 20 million on EBITDA. Level 2 operation is half of what Level 1 is. In that environment, it's very difficult to give an exact defined number, I'd have think.
Yes, we've been deliberately cautious given that uncertainty. If we sailed through the past week at level 1, we were looking potentially at providing a guidance, a slightly narrow guidance range than the broader guidance that we've given. The last week has just shown how things can change on a dime. Right now, our properties are actually still shut for the next 25 minutes.
We're not sure how our property in Auckland, and we're not sure how we're going to respond in level 2, or how long level 2 will be. I think what we'd like to be able to do is when we get to the, we normally provide an update in early May, around the time of the Macquarie Conference. Our intention would be to do just that.
Got it. I appreciate that. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from David Fabris from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Good morning, all. I know a cost question was asked earlier, have you got thoughts as to whether you can structurally expand margins across your assets when revenues fully recover? I mean, is there an opportunity to reduce fixed costs through headcount reductions or other initiatives?
I think there is, David, in terms of margins. If you take a look at the Hamilton result, for example. The Hamilton result is obviously again dominated by EGM performance. Since the way I look at the Hamilton result, really good EGM performance, good tables performance, weaker non-gaming performance, and margins are up significantly. A combination of stronger gaming performance, which is obviously our higher margin part of the business, but also some meaningful cost savings have been implemented and have been bedded down in that business.
As Michael indicated earlier, we're not looking to add costs back in where we don't need to. The Hamilton business is, I think, a good example of what we're achieving in general parts of our business. Auckland, it's a little bit more opaque given the mix of activities and also the significantly weaker non-gaming performance during the half.
Food and beverage, I think as we've highlighted, has been relatively weak, and hotels the same, and they have a significant adverse impact on the overall margin for the Auckland property. If you have a look at gaming, margins there are equivalent to what we've achieved, if not slightly up on what we've done in prior periods. If we were back to a normal revenue level of activity in Auckland, then with a similar mix of business, we'd expect to see margins slightly up. That would be sustainable going forward.
Great. Thanks for the color there. Another question.
Sorry, if I could add something. In regards to Adelaide specifically, look, we have signaled that we would expect margin improvement at that property post-expansion, particularly when you think that the growth that we're anticipating at that property is going to be in higher margin parts of our business. That's what we've seen so far for the property since we've been open in December and January. Hopefully we're going to see that flowing through as we report over subsequent periods. That property historically done, say, 15%-18% EBITDA margin level. We'd expect improvement as the property ramps up post opening of the facilities.
Great. Thanks for that. Just thinking about this strategic review on IB, are you thinking that New Zealand may look to ban junket play in time? What's been the historical skew to junkets when we think about maybe the FY19 volumes?
Look, we haven't had any communications from the DIA around junkets. Obviously, it's been a major focus in New South Wales of recent times. The key issue for IB is international borders are closed, and the way the business can operate going forward is clearly changing as a result of the Crown Inquiry.
What we're wanting to do is essentially trying to get ahead of some of those changes, and make sure the business can operate sustainably going forward. Our business in the international side has always been operated much more conservatively, and with much less reliance on junkets than some of our peers. If we look back at FY19, which is sort of the best comparable period, then around 15% of our turnover was driven by the corporate junkets.
Got you. Thanks. One last question from me, just thinking about Adelaide, have you got any observations as to whether local market operators have shifted to note acceptors into there? Are you getting a benefit because you're ahead of the reform changes, or is the market still fairly competitive?
We're definitely ahead of others in terms of timing because we're fully note acceptors, and no doubt that's in our number. I don't know if it's a particular competitive advantage. I think it's going to lift the market. My view is note acceptors will actually lift quite a larger market, and we benefited from that side.
I don't think that the fact that we're ahead in itself, I don't think that's particularly beneficial to us. It's good to be ahead, and we certainly see it's positive in terms of EGM performance. I expect any of the substitute operators will quickly catch up.
Got you. Thanks for that. That's all from me. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Marcus Curley from UBS. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Just two from me. On Adelaide, obviously, you've given some details. I just wondered whether you'd be willing to give us some hard numbers around the revenue and EBIT of the casino since it's opened. The comparative numbers you've given, one would assume, are impacted by last year's COVID issues. Is it possible to sort of just annualize what you're seeing to give us a ballpark illustration on what's happening?
Look, I think it's difficult to actually put numbers on this call. Look, what I would say, we've given a review. We've also said costs have been managed reasonably well, and it is going through the roof. I wouldn't be comfortable actually putting an actual number for December and January out there at this point.
Marcus, just to know, we're not in the habit of giving out monthly results. I know it would be wonderful if we did, but we're not about to start. What I would say is the Adelaide results last year weren't really impacted by COVID. The comparable period that was shown on page 24, 1 December through 13 February, isn't really impacted by COVID at all. These numbers obviously don't include IB. If there was going to be a COVID impact on Adelaide, it would be IB sort of going into Chinese New Year and the first couple of weeks of February last year.
Okay. Secondly, do you think the right working assumption for us going forward with International VIP is that you won't be involved in junket play?
We haven't made any decisions on that. Given the international borders are closed, we've got a little bit of time to figure that out. We obviously haven't had any interaction with the Macanese junkets for some months now, effectively 12 months.
Okay. When do you think you'll come to that decision? Is that something you'll announce in the near term, or do you think you'll take some time with it?
Look, I would say that with the review underway, and we have some time because international borders are notably muted. I'd say in this six-month period, we'll have landed where our position is going forward.
Yeah. Just to reiterate, Marcus, our reliance on the Macanese junkets is a lot smaller than our competitors. The bulk of our business, for some time now, has been essentially individual customers or individual customers playing through very small group operators, essentially the domestic group operators, as opposed to the Macanese junkets. We believe there is a meaningful, sustainable International Business for SkyCity going forward.
Sure. I suppose the issues that Crown have run into with those junket operators would equally apply to yourselves? Do you think you could manage those junket operators in a more appropriate way?
Yeah, look, I just read Rob's comments. The International Business in its entirety, we believe that there can be an International Business in the future. We've never been reliant on the Macau junket operators.
We don't want to get into a view of the Crown issues, Marcus. We've operated our business quite differently since its inception and don't think the same issues automatically apply to SkyCity.
Sorry, Rob, the line's not particularly clear, but did you say that in FY 2019, 55.0% of the business was on corporate junket?
15.
Right. Marcus.
Fifteen.
Okay. Thank you.
Marcus, it's Ben here. Just referring to page 46 in the presentation, which I know is in the depths of the appendices, but there's a comment there about the proportion of FY19 turnover that was represented by the Macanese groups. That's been pretty consistent, Rob, hasn't it, over several years?
Yeah.
Thank you.
All right. That was most probably a peak in FY2019 in terms of that percentage.
Yes.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Sacha Krien from Evans and Partners. Please go ahead.
Good morning. It was useful extra color on Auckland EBITDA in December. Just wondering if you could perhaps give us an EBITDA number for the December quarter when I think your restrictions were less than the September quarter across the business?
Sorry, Sacha. We're not in the habit of putting out quarterly EBITDA numbers, so unable to answer that one for you on this call.
Okay, no problem. On your comments around some cost potentially coming back into the business. I think it was fourth quarter 2020 you did the labor restructure, and you talked about NZD 40 million of annualized OPEX savings. Can you just remind us how many heads came out of the business at that time? I missed before when you said how many you've added back, and maybe just a comment on whether or not that's a permanent annualized cost saving, that NZD 40 million that you've previously talked to.
The restructure that we did at the time had about 900 and something, 850 or so was the final number of individuals who were made redundant. We've brought back people on time as businesses recover. I mentioned there 150, probably a little bit more now have come back into the business. We're hiring far more part-timers and casuals rather than full-timers.
I think the additional full-timer is a number of circa 20 of that 150. It's actually a very small portion. The full NZD 40 million, some of that will come back into the business as we grow. If you think of food and beverage and hotel businesses, these are highly labor-intensive. Some of that will come back over time. However, when our business gets back to FY2019 sort of levels, it will have a structurally different look in terms of margins.
We're not giving exact guidance in what that number looks like. That is what we're seeing. I would say, we are not sure what the outlook is in terms of when businesses will recover. What we're doing is taking a cautious approach to labor management, both in the front of house business, but also in the corporate areas as well.
Okay, sure. That’s helpful. Can you just remind us what your long-term Adelaide guidance is? I think you guys mentioned it just before.
Yeah, look, we've said NZD 60 million EBITDA, and that includes IB. In the next couple of years, outside of COVID, we're clear of COVID.
That target for the property.
Got it. Just last question on Adelaide. Last question overall, how soon do you expect to get up to 1,500 slots in Adelaide? Do you think you need to have all 1,500 entitlements out there to hit that NZD 60 million target?
No, look, we definitely don't need 1,500 to deliver the NZD 60 million target. The unit numbers we have outlined there are the unit numbers we would need to get there. I think it's a nice option to have that we could expand in future. If you look at a win per unit, any property in Australia or even our own properties here in Hamilton and so on, the win per unit is very low there as well. My view is about the location and what we've got in premium rooms and VIP. That's certainly helpful. It's a nice option on the future to be able to grow.
Sacha, it's Ben here. A comment I would make, all I'm trying to signal there is there is some capacity, right? Under the entitlements that we have. We have created space within the facility that can be converted from non-gaming to gaming. Function space is an obvious one, and that's a significant function space there which reflecting future demand, we might retrofit that space for gaming, which would take our product beyond what we've guided to in the document. It is an option. I use an option on the future in the way I describe it.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Adrian Allbon from Jarden. Please go ahead.
Oh, good afternoon, team. First question, can I just circle back to slide 45, which I know there's been a lot of questions on Adelaide, but just when I look at the slide, would it be more normal for us to think about the EBITDA contribution, which has been incredibly strong, more like a full-year contribution in earlier years without the JobKeeper Payment? Because, to Rob's earlier point, first half 2020 wasn't really COVID-19 impacted, and those sort of key operating revenues are not significantly down. If those assumptions are more correct, is that also driving a little bit into the cautiousness around the full-year guidance?
I think the one way to think about Adelaide's performance in the first half, Adrian, I think we've highlighted the impact of JobKeeper on that slide on the Adelaide business. If you take that out, Adelaide was performing reasonably well under the circumstances July through November. It was pretty close to PCP during that period, despite the disruption constraints, despite the COVID constraints that the property was still under.
We've got the benefit of December post the expansion opening, which was a much better month, as highlighted in some of the earlier slides. Overall, for the half, Adelaide was pretty much in line at an EBITDA level with what it had done in the prior period. We have our expectations for Adelaide in the second half are much higher than what we did in the prior period.
I'm not sure whether that answers your question, but that's roughly how we're thinking about the Adelaide performance in the first half.
Well, I know it's a difficult question to ask in the sense of what is normal, but just in terms of how we would think about our modeling into the full year, I guess, for the second half. Would you be expecting an Adelaide second half performance above this normalized EBITDA that you've just reported for the first half, which obviously includes JobKeeper?
Look, the JobKeeper number does distort the first half, so I don't think we'd expect to be below that first half number for the second half in Adelaide.
Okay.
Take JobKeeper out, we'd expect to be meaningfully above what we did in the first half.
Is there any JobKeeper that flows into the second half?
No.
Okay. Just second question, obviously you've had the review of the dividend policy, and you've given some guidelines. Just in terms of again, this is caveated on lockdowns and all that sort of stuff, but how you would implement it for FY 2021, when obviously you've had the restrictions on the first half. Would you be looking at potentially paying a proportion of the full-year profit, not just the second half proportion?
The rough way we’re thinking about it is take the full year, apply the policy, and then halve it to give a split between a normal interim and a normal final dividend.
In the case of implementing that.
How we think
Assuming no lockdown.
Yeah.
I guess what I'm saying is with the lockdown.
Yeah, any lockdown will obviously influence what the underlying impact and EPS number is to which the policy will be applied. To be very clear, I think it would have to be a fairly prolonged lockdown for us not to meet the financial covenants for 30 June that we see with Rob.
Yeah.
Hence, be in a position to pay a dividend. We’re comfortable that a decent amount of headroom around covenant compliance, specifically for the June test.
Yeah. Apologies, maybe I've asked the question poorly. When you come to applying on the dividend after your year-end performance, which I presume would be at the August result, if it performed in line with the expectations, there wasn't onerous restrictions on lockdowns and stuff through that period, would you potentially look at paying a catch-up dividend for the fact that you couldn't pay it in the first half?
No, that's not how we're thinking about it, Adrian.
Okay
is essentially establish a sustainable interim and final dividend pattern, and consistent with the new policy outline. I don't think our performance in the first half justifies a catch-up dividend like some of the retailers might have done in New Zealand and Australia in recent times.
Okay. Understood.
Yeah, thanks. We're actually coming to the end of our allotted time. I might just thank everybody for their participation and on the call today and look forward to having further discussions with you on the one-on-one sessions that we're having over the next couple of days. Thank you all.
Thanks all.
Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.