Coast Entertainment Holdings Limited (CEH) Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning and thank you by standing by. Welcome to the Coast Entertainment Holdings Limited 2026 Annual General Meeting. I would now like to hand over to your Chairman, Dr. Gary Weiss, AM, to begin proceedings.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Annual General Meeting of Coast Entertainment Holdings Limited, which this year is being held at SkyPoint. My name is Gary Weiss, and I'm the Chairman of Coast. For those attending in person, welcome to SkyPoint, 1 of the Gold Coast's most iconic attractions. As in previous years, this AGM has been conducted in a hybrid format to allow shareholders to participate either in person or virtually via the online platform. Before I formally open the meeting, I will ask our company Secretary, Chris Todd, to outline some procedural matters on today's meeting for those who are joining us virtually.

Thanks, Gary. As mentioned by Gary, today's meeting is being conducted in a hybrid format, allowing some people to attend virtually via the online AGM platform which is open. For those attending virtually, I just have a few notes. If you're experiencing any technical issues, we have published a virtual meeting guide on our website, so please refer to same. Shareholders who are online will also have an opportunity to ask questions via the virtual meeting platform. If you are a shareholder or a proxy, attorney or representative of a shareholder wish to ask questions online about a particular item of business, please click the icon ask a question on your screen, select that item of business to which your question relates, and then submit. If you have any questions already prepared, please submit them now on the platform so that we can consider them as and when we come to the particular resolution or agenda item. You do not need to wait until the relevant item of business. At the conclusion of the meeting, we will endeavor to respond to any shareholder questions of a general nature that may not have been addressed in the business update or if we consider that a response would be in the benefit of all shareholders. A recording of today's meeting will be available on our website late this afternoon. I'll now hand back to Gary to formally open the meeting.

I now confirm that a quorum is present, and I declare the meeting open. It is my pleasure to introduce to you the members of the Coast Entertainment Board in attendance today. I'm joined in person at SkyPoint by David Haslingden, our Lead Independent Director, and joining us on the phone from the U.S. are our colleagues, Randy Garfield and Erin Wallace. I would also like to welcome members of the executive team: Greg Yong, our Group Chief Executive Officer, on my right; and on my left, Jose de Sacadura, Group Chief Financial Officer; and also welcome the group's auditor, BDO Audit Pty Limited, represented by Tim Mann, and Tim is sitting at the front flow and available to answer questions in relation to the FY '26 auditor's report. The format for today's meeting will be as follows. I will begin by providing some opening remarks outlining the key activities and performance highlights of the group for the year. I will then hand over to Greg to provide a more detailed update on the business, including a recap of our FY '26 theme parks and attractions financial results and recent trading performance. Greg will also provide some detail regarding our corporate strategy and capital management framework. And importantly, our plans are unlocking the potential of the group's land holdings including the proposed development funding approach and time line. We will then move to the formal business of the meeting and put to shareholders the resolution set out in the notice of meeting. All resolutions to be put to the meeting today will be decided by way of poll. Shareholders attending the meeting will be up to cast the vote using ballot papers if attending in person, or the electronic voting card received when your online registration is validated, if attending online. Further information and assistance with online voting can be found in the virtual meeting guide available on the group's website. The group is pleased to report a strong performance in FY '26 with solid growth across every key operating and financial metric. As highlighted in our August results presentation, FY '26 was a 53-week year compared with 52 weeks reported in FY '25. To provide a more meaningful comparison, I will focus on like-for-like performance, which adjust for the additional week in the prior year. In FY '26, our theme parks and attractions businesses delivered a strong growth across all key measures. Ticket sales increased 24% on a like-for-like basis, while total visitation reached 2 million guests, up 26.5%. Operating revenue also increased 19% to $116.5 million with the business delivering record food and beverage and retail revenues. Importantly, earnings growth significantly outpaced revenue growth with theme parks and attractions EBITDA, excluding specific items, more than doubling to $18.8 million. This demonstrates the strong operating leverage within our business. Strong annual power sales also contributed to a 58.7% increase in deferred revenue to $20.2 million providing a solid revenue base heading into FY '27. At the group level, EBITDA, excluding specific items, increased 236.5% to $13.8 million and the group returned to net profitability, delivering a consolidated net profit after tax of $6.1 million. The group also generated positive cash flows ending FY '26 in a strong financial position with $35 million in cash, no debt and a fully undrawn $20 million banking facility. Beyond our operating performance, FY '26 was also a breakthrough year for unlocking the value of our underlying assets. In July 2026, we received planning approval for our 55-hectare Coomera landholding, creating significant opportunities to realize long-term shareholder value. Greg will discuss these opportunities in more detail shortly. Following the approval, we commissioned independent valuations of Dreamworld and SkyPoint with fair values determined the $295.9 million and $51.7 million respectively, both significantly above their current book values. Together with $136.1 million of tax losses, representing a tax benefit of $40.8 million most of which is not recognized on our balance sheet. These highlight the substantial underlying asset value within the group. It's now my pleasure to invite Greg to provide a further update on the performance of the business. And following this update, we will move to the formal business of the meeting.

Thank you, Gary, and good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here and to have the opportunity to update you today on the progress we are making at Coast Entertainment. We covered the FY '26 financial results in detail in August. So I'll recap that in a relatively brief form before providing an update on our September 2026 year-to-date trading performance. Today, though, I want to focus on what I believe is the most significant opportunity ahead of us, which is unlocking the latent value of our Coomera land holding. Our central objective is straightforward to build a stronger operating and to convert the value of our assets into sustainable long-time value for you, our shareholders. FY '26 was a strong year for Coast. And as illustrated on Slide 6, we have delivered continued improvement across profitability, guest experience and operational performance. We did this while maintaining our focus on safety, delivering new attractions and products and improving our operational efficiency. As we cover these achievements in detail in August, I'll not revisit their individual today, the credit goes to our team for all his great work and it gives us the platform today to talk about growth. Turning briefly to Slide 7 and the numbers on Slide 7. We welcome just over 2 million visitors in FY '26, an increase of 26.5% on a like for like basis, that is the highest attendance since FY '16, with Dreamworld also achieving our record daily attendance during the peak summer holidays. As Gary mentioned earlier, our ticket sales and operating revenue grew strongly in FY '26. Notably that revenue growth translated into stronger earnings with EBITDA, excluding specific items, more than doubling to $18.8 million, up almost 120% on the prior year, the highest since FY '26, while the EBITDA margin improved by 7.3 percentage points to 16.1%. In simple terms, more revenue is flowing through a largely fixed cost base, and so more of every dollar reaches the bottom line. Revenue per visitor was lower, partly reflecting the mix of visits and the strength of new passes. However, this larger passholder base is strategically important, supporting repeat visitation and future impact spending opportunities. Turning to the current years trading on Slide 8. For the quarter through September 2026, we continue to deliver growth despite navigating a more challenging consumer environment and cycling a strong comparative period. Total visitation increased by 18.4%, while revenue increased by 12.5% compared to the prior corresponding period. SkyPoint, which we are here today, continued strong performance, delivering another record revenue result for the first quarter. The larger passholder base continues to support visitation with deferred revenue at the end of September growing 23.6% in the prior period. Ticket sales was 16.2% below the prior period and the main driver of that is timing. Last year's first quarter included final -- the final high-volume week of our 2025 underfinancing -- this year, because FY '26 was a 53-week year, that same week fell in June and was counted in FY '26. In other words, this quarter is being compared against the period that included one of our biggest sales. We foreshadowed this back in our August results. Notwithstanding the timing effect, visitation, revenue and EBITDA all continue to grow, as we've said 1 quarter is not a year, but it does reflect the resilience of the business. Slide 9 is an important reminder of both how far we've come and how much opportunity remains. We have grown attendance every year since FY '21, particularly strong attendance and growth in FY '26. However, even after this recovery, our attendance of 2 million remains approximately 17% below the 2.4 million visits recorded back in FY '16. Over the same period, the local catchment has grown by 20%. And interstate overnight visitation has also increased by 23%. So in other words, we're operating in a larger addressable market today. Notably, despite tenants remaining below historical levels, both ticket sales and operating revenue have already exceeded FY '16 levels. This demonstrates the progress we have made in rebuilding the business. But whilst we are proud of the recovery, we do not see it as complete. And we are very clear about the residual pockets of demand that we can access to continue to build back to historical results and beyond. We have existing infrastructure and operating capacity to support even more visitation growth and that is an important advantage as we consider the next stage. Slide 10 outlines our overarching strategy for creating long-term stakeholder value. At its foundation, as always is safety our people and disciplined capital allocation. We are focused on delivering better guest experiences, reaching more customers, increasing in-park spending and using technology to improve operations and remove friction. These initiatives underpin the ongoing performance and growth of our core business. And the final number today is particularly relevant to today's discussion, transforming Dreamworld and unlocking the latent value of our land holdings. This represents an opportunity to broaden our earnings beyond the traditional theme park model while synergistically reinforcing the strength of our core business. On Slide 11, you will see some of the examples of the initiatives we are progressing with existing business. These are things that you would expect us to be working on every day. These include the development of annual attraction lost mine Mayhem, expanding our marketing reach through our multichannel and multi-market approach, increasing in-park conversion and leveraging technology to simplify the guest experience and improve throughput. We discuss these initiatives in greater detail during our FY '26 presentation, so I'm not going to go through that in any more detail today. I do want to emphasize that our focus on the unlocking broader land opportunity does not come at the expense of continuing to invest in and to strengthen our core theme park business. Turning to Slide 12. I think it's abundantly clear, and we know that there is a significant gap between the company's current market valuation and the independently assessed value of our underlying assets. As illustrated, after adjusting for our $35 million of cash balance, the market's implied valuation of Dreamworld and SkyPoint approximately $165 million. This compares with the independent fair valuation of approximately $348 million, representing a discount of around 55% as at 30th October 2026. We recognize that several factors may be contributing to this discount, including our relatively small market cap and limited share liquidity, the ongoing recovery of our operating business and the challenging conditions in the consumer discretionary sector. Until recently, there has also been uncertainty around how we intend to realize the value from our trimer land holding. Our focus now is on closing this valuation gap through continued earnings growth and a disciplined approach to unlocking the value of our shareholdings. Recognizing the scale of these opportunities, we have engaged Barrenjoey as our financial and strategic adviser. As you'll see on Slide 13, Barrenjoey has undertaken an external assessment of the strategic opportunities available to Coast following the planning approval. The review has considered a wide range of alternatives, including land monetization, development partnerships and different ownership and funding structures. The objective has been to identify the pathway that offers the most attractive risk-adjusted returns and the greatest potential to create long-term value for our shareholders. The assessment has been encouraging, indicating attractive term potential for an integrated hotel and in entertainment, dining and retail development. Of course, this remains subject to further technical studies, cost validation, feasibility and final investment decisions, and I will discuss the findings of this review shortly. I know some of you will hear what follows and we'll think about risk about debt and about how long before you will see a return. And we thought about those things, too. So before I talk about what we intend to build, I want to show you how we will protect your company along the way. Alongside this assessment, our capital management framework provides the guiding principles for how we evaluate investment opportunities and allocate capital across the business. Outside of safety, we believe capital allocation is the most critical discipline for the board and for management. Slide 14 outlines the capital allocation framework our investment decisions. We will not pursue development simply because our planning approval has been granted. Our capital allocation priorities are clear and they apply in this order. First, we protect the core business: safety, maintenance, attraction renewal of funded before any development spending. The parks are not put at risk to build a hotel. Second, we maintain balanced strength ensuring sufficient liquidity and manageable leverage throughout the investment cycle. And third, we invest for growth but only where the risk-adjusted returns justify the capital required. Finally, where we did not have sufficiently attractive opportunities to deploy capital. We believe that capital should be returned to shareholders. This framework applies equally to investment in our theme parks and any proposed present development. Ultimately, every investment must demonstrate that it can generate an appropriate return and contribute to long-term shareholder value. On to Slide 15. With the land rezoning options now available to us, we believe the most compelling way to grow value is to transform Dreamworld into an integrated entertainment destination. Compared with the other parts, the growth, it is also a lower risk one. We already own the land. The demand is already on the site and the model is well proven elsewhere. At its simplest, we want to move from a 1 data citation to a place where guests can play, stay, eat and shop. And importantly, Dreamworld remains our key anchor. The hotel create an opportunity to turn a day trip into a short holiday, while the entertainment dining and retail precinct or EDR for short, is visitors more reasons to stay into the evening and attracts local resident whoi may not otherwise visit the theme park. This creates a flywheel effect to propel value creation. A broader offering can attract guests from further away, and carry longer stays and generate additional more diverse and high yielding revenue streams. Shared infrastructure and services may also create operational and capital efficiencies. We believe that a hotel, a leisure precinct and a theme park can collectively create a stronger destination, attract more visitors, increased dwell time and spending and reinforce growth. And as Slide 16 shows this integrated destination model is well established internationally. We're showing today just 2 prominent examples of Shanghai Disney and Universal in Orlando. Moreover, both Disney and Universal have continued expanding their on-site accommodation offerings alongside complimentary entertainment, dining and retail precincts supporting multi-days days across their global markets. We are certainly not comparing Dreamworld's scale with Disney or Universal. Their capital resources and visitor volumes very different. However, the underlying principle is relevant when guests have more reasons to stay as destination can capture a greater share of the holiday time and spending. That is a principle we are looking to apply in the context of Dreamworld and Gold Coast. On Slide 17, you can see this approach is not limited to the world's largest theme park operators. We have undertaken extensive research globally in exploring this concept. Our review benchmarking regional theme parks, attracting approximately 1 million to 3 million visitors annually, which is a much more comparable scale to Dreamworld. Of the 58 parks reviewed, 33 have on accommodation, representing almost 60% of the benchmark group. Our proportion is particularly high in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. A number of regional operators are also expanding the hotel offerings. This demonstrates an integrated accommodation with attraction is an established growth strategy for many theme parks operating at scale very comparable to our park year at Dreamworld. So this is clearly not a Disney or Universal play, but something that we are seeing across regional parks not dissimilar to ours right across the globe. Slide 18 provides several examples of regional operators that are successfully incorporated accommodation into their offerings. Europa Park has developed a substantial accommodation offering while Park a Strict is planning a fourth hotel. Efteling and Liseberg have both acknowledged these hotels formed a key part of their growth strategy. And critically, closer to home, Seaward Resort is a familiar example of a theme park operating alongside a hotel and conference facilities right here on the Gold Coast. I worked for SeaWorld for a long, long time. And so I've seen this model work not in a case study, but I've seen it from inside. And 1 particular interesting example is Dollywood in Tennessee. Dollywood attracts more than 3 million visitors annually and successfully operate its offering to include 2 resort hotels with plans for more accommodation in the years to come despite the park operating seasonally. It's located in Pigeon Forge, a town with a resident population of only 6,000 people. Yet the broader destination attracts approximately 2 million visitors each year. By comparison, Dreamworld benefits from its location within the stables Gold Coast tourism market, which attracted approximately 5.8 million overnight visitors in the year ending March 2026. The significance of these examples is not simply the number of hotel rooms. It is the opportunity to broaden the visit catchment, encourage longer stays and create a more complete destination experience. We have spent considerable time studying these examples to understand what might be transferred with the Dreamworld, but we recognize that each market has its own characteristics. Slide 19 brings together commentary from industry analysts and operators that reinforces this strategy. A consistent theme is that accommodation and complementary entertainment offerings can extend visit catchments, support higher room rates, generate more overnight stays and create complementary revenue streams. But I want to make an important distinction. These examples provide strategic evidence for considering the opportunity but they are not a substitute for our own visibility work. And that leads to what we think is particularly interesting about our own location. This, in our opinion, is Australia's most compelling integrated hotel opportunity. Slide 20 highlights Dreamworld's unique location in the heart of an established tourism corridor alongside major attractions, including Movie World, Wet n Wild, Paradise Country and Topgolf. So unlike many stand-alone theme park destination is where hotel demand is largely driven by a single park. Dreamworld's location offers access to several major attractions in close proximity. This creates an opportunity for the proposed hotel to attract families looking to experience multiple attractions during 1 day, potentially supporting longer average days than a comparable single-part destinations. There are also additional source of demand beyond leisure tourism, the growing commercial precinct with a planned 600-bed public hospital opening minutes from the park, marine activity, business travel and events. Together, these diverse demand sources could help support year-round hotel occupancy and reduce reliance on peak in periods. Access to the M1 and to heavy rail is another major advantage. And looking ahead, the Bridge in 2032 gains will create further interest in accommodation across the broader corridor. Take all of this and add the lack of quality family hotels between Dreamworld in Brisbane, and you can see why we are very interested in this opportunity. Slide 21 illustrates how we are considering the opportunities across the 4 precincts following the planning improvement. The first precinct is the existing theme park business. It is operating engine, and it remains our immediate priority. The second precinct is our proposed Dreamworld branded 4-star hotel of approximately 250 rooms. At this stage, the indicative investment inclusive of our land is approximately $200 million. We completed with completion targeted around 2030 to 2031, subject to all necessary investment decisions and approvals. The third precinct is an integrated entertainment dining and retail precinct with an indicative investment of approximately $60 million including the land. We envisage leisure focus experiences operated primarily by specialist third-party tenants, with the potential to create recurring rental income. Development could be phased to alarm with demand and the could be brought online ahead of the hotel, creating early cash flows. The fourth precinct provides additional and use optionality, including potential residential and mixed-use development. And let me be clear, we do not intend to become a residential developer. This land is a source of capital. We will revise its value through capital-light options at the right time to ensure that we maximize its work, acting too early, would leave value on the table. Taken together, these elements create to transform Dreamworld into a broader destination whilst maintaining our focus on the core theme park business. As mentioned earlier, we have worked with Barrenjoey to assess a broad range of strategic alternatives for our landholding. And that process is broadly outlined on Slide 22. The assessment has intentionally considered every option for each land parcel, including doing nothing. So maintaining the status quo, selling the land, partnering with third parties and undertaking development ourselves. Doing nothing is not risk-free. It means choosing to leave that value on the table and waiting has a cost of its own. To do the things that we're proposing today, it will almost certainly never be cheaper than to build in today's existing market. The analysis indicates that leading the development of the proposed hotel and entertainment precinct ourselves represents the most attractive pathway to the alternative assessed. That does not rule out capital partners, and we remain open to them where they improve the risk-adjusted outcome for our shareholders come to funding shortly. That preferred pathway is supported by the potential financial returns, not simply the strategic appeal of these concepts. The analysis indicated a levered internal rate of return of above 20% across the hotel -- EDR, together with an estimated value on completion of approximately $330 million. The modeling also indicated that the proposed developments meet our risk-adjusted return hurdles. These are encouraging findings and reinforce our view that the integrated development could represent a compelling opportunity to unlock the latent value of our land holdings. However, I want to emphasize that these are not -- these are indicative investment assessments. They are not earnings forecast or committed outcomes and the main dependent upon assumptions around construction costs, demand operating performance, financing and execution. Our responsibility is to validate those assumptions before committing significant capital. Slide 23 provides a conceptual illustration of how the proposed integration to its destination could look. This is not a final design. It is presented to help explain how the various elements might connect. Imagine a shared arrival experience serving the hotel, theme park and entertainment precinct. Families could stay on the site, visit Dreamworld, enjoy dining and entertainment in the evening and explore other attractions in the region. The ED&R precinct would also be open to local residents without requiring a theme park ticket. That is important because it broadens the customer base and create reasons to visit outside the judicial theme park study. In our discussions with other regional theme park operators, a recurring observation has been that with the benefit of hindsight at which they invested in the combination earlier. I suspect in 10 years' time, we may look back at this hotel at Dreamworld and wonder why we didn't do it earlier. Our existing footprint has previously accommodated approximately 2.4 million visits a year. We therefore have more than sufficient room to grow visitation without having to expand the core theme park footprint. The adjoining land can be used to improve the destination offering rather than simply making theme park physically larger. And again, the illustration is a visioning tool. It's not a final design and the layout the cost and delivery sequence will evolve as we complete the necessary work. On Slide 24, you will see all of the potential funding options available to us. As at June 2026, the group was debt-free with $35 million in cash and a fully undrawn $20 million facility. In FY '26, the group also generated positive net cash flows after funding capital expenditure and a share buyback. For the proposed developments, we are considering a range of funding options, including utilization of available surplus cash, incorporating and introducing corporate or project level debt, potential capital partners and over time monetization of non-core land. As we already own the land, that component does not require any funding. I want to be direct on this. Our current strategy does not contemplate a new equity raising. We are conscious of dilation and we want the benefits of value creation to accrue to existing shareholders. Our preliminary funding assessment indicates that at peak gearing, we could remain within our target range of 30% to 35% before reducing as the development for each stabilized operations. And once the hotel is open and trading, we have an expectation that recycling capital from this asset at its stabilized value we continue to reduce that debt. At this stage, no final financing packaging has been agreed, and the ultimate structure must be appropriate for the project and its risk. Our theme parks will continue to receive the investment required for safety, maintenance and new attractions, supported by available cash and operating cash flows. Ultimately, our funding approach we disciplined with a clear focus on protecting the core business whilst delivering long-term value for our shareholders. Slide 25 outlines the robust process we follow in terms of crystallizing this land value. It is a staged process with clear decision gates before significant capital is committed. We have already contemplated the additional land approval, the initial land approval and completed that work. We've completed concept and market assessments and preliminary feasibility and funding reviews. We are now progressing master planning, technical design and independent cost validation. From there, the process will move through the necessary development applications, engineering, tendering and financing arrangements. At every step, there are clear board decision gates. At each stage, we will assess whether the underlying assumptions remain valid, including market demand, construction costs, funding terms and expected investment returns. If these conditions are not met, we retain the flexibility to pause, resize restage or reconsider the proposed development. The indicative time line contemplates development delivery between 2028 and 2030 with a targeted opening of around 2030 to 2031. However, this remains subject to feasibility approvals, funding and final investment decisions. I will be playing about the trade-off? This asks you for patients. This value comes over several years, not this year. But we believe this is a meaningful opportunity here and our opportunity is to pursue it with the operational discipline that shareholders should expect. Turning to Slide 26. In summary, we are not ready to announce unconditionally today that we're building any of this. But we are signaling our strong intention to do so based on the preliminary work done to date. As I've outlined, our proposed process has -- decision gates along the way, which allowed the Board to retain the capability to adjust our plans as information comes to hand. We believe we have conducted a rigorous process to come to this position, and we believe that this is the most rational pathway to grow value for the company and its stakeholders. First, we have considered a broad range of alternatives, including development, partnerships, land monetization in consultation with Barrenjoey. Second, as demonstrated by the international and regional examples I've discussed earlier, integrated theme park destinations are a proven and well-established model. This is a tried and tested concept in destination parks like Disney, Universal in regional parts across the world and indeed, very approximate to where we are meeting here today. From a risk perspective, we are not pioneering here. This is not particularly seminal. Third, our preliminary assessment is further bolstered by Dreamers location surrounding demand drivers, which are unique and superior to almost every regional theme park case that we have studied. Few, if any of these parks have neighboring theme parks with no hotel of their own, a major new hospital on the neighboring land, a burgeoning marine and industrial precinct nearby, an undersupplied hotel market with no quality family accommodation between Dreamworld and Brisbane or anything like the Olympic Games being on the horizon. And finally, we believe that this approach has the potential to create incremental earnings, diversify our revenue streams and create significant long-term shareholder value whilst complementing our existing theme park business. Importantly, we have the right experience. The Board and management team brings extensive global and regional experience in integrated destinations and hotel operations, providing expertise to guide these investment decisions and their execution. Ultimately, our objective is to unlock value in a disciplined way that creates sustainable long-term returns for our shareholders. So let me finish on Slide 27 with the key messages I'd like you to take away today. Our core operating business is stronger with 4 consecutive years positive theme park earnings and attractions EBITDA. Positive cash flows in FY '26, and we continue to see meaningful growth opportunities in the parks, particularly with the tenants still below historical levels. The recent planning approvals unlock significant opportunities for our land holding, including our potential hotel, entertainment precinct and options for surplus land, all of which we think would complement and strengthen our existing our theme park business. And finally, we recognize the potential is not the same as realized shareholder value. Our focus is on bridging this gap through stronger execution, disciplined investment decisions and appropriate funding and clear execution milestones. I say this is a shareholder myself, we are very optimistic about the future of the group, but we intend to earn that optimism through delivery. Thank you for your continued support, and I'll now hand back to Gary to conduct the formal business of the meeting.

Greg. We will now move to the formal business of the meeting. The resolutions for consideration today may only be voted on by shareholders, proxy holders and shareholder company representatives. I propose to call a poll on each of the resolutions. As a reminder, shareholders attending via the online platform will have the opportunity to ask questions on each matter being put to the meeting. If you have questions already prepared, please go ahead and submit them now. The first item of ordinary business is to receive the annual financial report, the director's report and the independent external auditor's report for the company for the financial year ended 30 June 2026. The remuneration report will be put to vote for adoption separately.

Are there any questions from those persons present in relation to the annual financial report, the director's report or the independent external auditor's report. Yes, sir. So we want to get you a microphone, although that may be a bit more than needed...

My name is Richard Logan, I'm a shareholder. Just curious to know why we our annual reporting is -- goes from the last Tuesday in June to the last Tuesday in June for a business that's open nearly every day of the year, wouldn't it be neater to be able to measure it, just the 30th of June every year?

There are reasons which Jose will explain to you in technical terms.

In the past, when we had many different businesses, we did starting June year end. But -- the disadvantage of doing that is that depending on how the year falls, you might have some years with 53 weekends in them as opposed to other years, which might have a 51 and so sometimes that creates a bit of comparability within report. So operating on a retail reporting calendar, which is -- it's very common in the retail sector that we report on 52 weeks every year. And that way you know that every year you're looking at, there's going to be 52 weeks down. There is a slight nuance to that because 52 weeks doesn't equal a year, it's 1 day short of a year. So year-end will get earlier and every fourth or fifth year, we do actually need to add an extra 53rd week, just -- otherwise, we would be perpetually getting earlier. So FY '26 was a 53-week year for that reason. But yes, the primary reason is just to make the results comparable. So you've got 53 weeks -- sorry, 52 weeks 52 weekends, which are obviously the busier part of each week in each financial year.

It is made around every year, except this year. This year is the missing one because it is 53 weeks.

Yes. And you'll see that every 4 or 5 year depends on what leap years and the like. But yes, every -- every so often, we have to do that. Otherwise, the year in which and early the other...

Any other questions in the room? Okay. Chris, any questions online.

There was a question asked to the auditor. I'll read it. BDO replaced EY as our auditor in 2024. Could the BDO audit signing partner in the room, please summarize the changes to reported key audit matters since BDO became our auditor. And what was the next most likely issue that was considered for inclusion as a key audit matter in the latest order, but ultimately didn't make the cut.

Thank you, Chris, and through your Chair. My name is Tim Mann. I'm the audit partner on Dreamer or on Coast Entertainment. So just to respond to that question. From recollection, I believe the prior auditor had 1 key audit matter in 2024, which is related to the recoverability of the Dreamworld assets and the property, plant and equipment. Similar to that, we have 1 key audit matter this year, which relates to the valuation of the Dreamworld CGU. Probably 1 of the key differences from 2024 is not only are we looking at whether any indicators of impairment. But with the improved results that have been talked through today, we're also considering whether there's any indicators of a reversal of those previous impairments that have been recorded in prior years. So to look at that, we did similar processes where we looked at the management's internal value and use calculation and looked at the key judgments and assumptions that are included in there. We engage with our internal experts as well to review that model and the assumptions that have been applied. And we also looked at the external valuation that management had engaged and perhaps Jose can talk to that in a second as well. So that's probably the key change in the key audit matters that we've had this year. The second part of the question, when we look at what some of the other areas that we considered, similar to a lot of listed companies, revenue is 1 that we look at. It's generally risk that we focus on. However, it is a relatively straightforward process for us to order that. And so while we do, do a number of procedures on it, we didn't consider it to be a key audit matter. The second area that we did consider that was the recoverability of the deferred tax assets and in the presentation, you've seen discussion on an amount that have been recognized on the balance sheet. There are further tax losses that can be recognized, but we worked with management to understand the amounts that have been recognized and the forecasts that supported that to see if that could be -- whether we concur with that treatment. So that's probably a summary of the key audit matters. I'm not sure if the person that asked that in the room, but otherwise, I'll hand back.

Thanks, Tim. Chris, any other questions? .

No further questions, Gary.

Okay. Resolution 1, the notice of meeting is to adopt the remuneration report for the year ended 30 June 2026. The remuneration report is included within the annual report has been made available to shareholders. Investors should note that the vote in relation to the adoption of the report is not binding on the company or the directors. The company will disregard any votes cast on resolution 1 that do not comply with the voting exclusion requirements of The Corporations Act as set out in the Notice of Meeting. I move that the company's remuneration report for the financial year ended 30 June 2026 be received, considered and adopted. The proxy results received for this resolution are on the screen and then questions in the room in relation to this matter. Appear to be none, Chris, any online questions. .

No, Gary.

Thank you. I'll now move to the next items of business. The next 2 resolutions concern the reelection of myself and Randy Garfield as Directors of the company. I will now hand over the chair of the meeting to David to read resolution to.

Thank you, Gary. Resolution 2 in the notice of meeting is to reelect Dr. Gary Weiss, AM as Director of the company. Details in relation to Gary's background experience andsome qualifications have been provided in the notice of meeting. I move that Dr. Gary Weiss AM, who retires by rotation in accordance with Clause 6.1F of the company's constitution. and being eligible for reelection, be reelected as a director. The proxy results for this resolution are on the screen. Are there any questions from those persons present in relation to this resolution.

Yes, pretty well related to this, assuming Gary gets elected today, we will have 2 out of our 4 directors based in Australia. We've just recently lost 1 Australian-based director, I guess that's a little unusual for a solely Australian-based business. Is there any intention to expand the Board or getting any more directors that are Australian-based?

The short answer to that question is yes. But not seeking to leave the response to that. Can I just say how privileged and we are served by having overseas directors of the caliber of Randy and Erin. Two directors absolutely steep in every operation aspect of running a theme park. And it's -- we're incredibly grateful to the contribution that they make to this company. We were very sad to see Jemma leave us. There were a number of issues, particularly relating to the new role as a part-time owner of the Gold Coast Titans, which if you're a follower of the Titans and have a look at the team in Jersey, you'll find that our rival is down the road is 1 of the principal sponsors. So that created an issue. And as I said, very sorry that Jemma left us, he made enormous contribution here. But coming back to your question, yes, we have the intention to appoint at least 1 new Australian base director to the Board in coming months.

I'm very happy to have you reelected. I'm just curious, do you have a history with -- because you've got a long history of doing financial matters hotel development? Is there like hotel development experience on the Board? Or perhaps you've done something similar to this before? Or what talent will you draw on at the Board level apart from external consultants.

In specific terms, we don't have hotel development experience. But around the table, we do have considerable experience in terms of property development and most relevantly in the case of particularly Aaron, significant involvement in Disney's theme parks. Greg, if I am correct, Erin ran Magic Kingdom, I think, for Disney.

Carriage for several of the parks in Orlando and also responsibility for the hotel operations at Disney as well. And so some of that is obviously related to the operations of the hotels. And I understand as well, simply has responsibility for the feasibility and consideration for future hotels as well. So I think the Board table certainly has that experience and in addition to that, around the management ranks, we certainly have experience both in terms of local theme park hotels. And we have a lot of experience in the management ranks, particularly from the core and other areas as well. Now we intend given the scale of what we're proposing today to bring on the appropriate consultants, particularly around the construction feasibility, particularly on the project management element of that. We have a very good track record, I would say, in terms of significant capital investments and then coming in on time and on budget in a difficult environment. But we appreciate this is a significant investment potentially. And so as a result, we would want to bring the best people to the table.

Chris, have we received any online questions in relation to the reelection of Gary?

Yes, there's a couple there, David. So I'll just -- they're quite long. I will just read a summary to the first 1 part of it may be answered by you and the other part, like Gary, it comes from Stephen Maine. It refers to Gary's dealings with Village roadshows own a private equity firm BGH over the past year in voting support arrangement at Webjet. The question is, was the full Coast border the chairs dealings with our biggest competitor? And the second part of the question to Gary, did you have any discussions with BGH about ownership arrangements with Dreamworld, SeaWorld and Movie well. .

I can answer the first affirmatively. And Gary, if you want to answer the second.

Sure. Why don't you go first and then...

I have, I said yes, we were aware.

Yes. And the short answer to the second question is no, other than the fact that, obviously, we both operate in the same industry and beyond broad discussion about the industry both here and globally. The short answer is no.

And there's a second question on this resolution that comes from Stephen Maine again. And Gary, it refers to various boards and other similar positions that you hold what percentage of time does Gary devote to coast matters? Are you intending to serve a full 3-year term when you finally slow down, where we'll go shrinking your priorities? And also the final part of the question, did any proxy adviser recommend against your reelection today.

Okay. There was a raft of questions dealing with the last one. The proxy advisory for ISS recommended against my reelection on the basis that I apparently have a disease called overboarding. I note that the report provided by ISS provided no qualitative analysis of the contribution that I've made to this company since my appointment, in terms of my attention to this company. Aside from being Chairman, I'm also representing a group that has a very large ownership position in this company. I approach my role here as being a very interested and diligent part owner of this business, and that reflects my level of involvement and dedication to the business. As to the level of my involvement, I might ask Greg to comment about the extent of my very intrusive presence during each and every day that he occupies his role.

Thanks, Gary. Look, I don't propose to share my mobile phone receive call log with the meeting today, but I can assure you of this is that I talk to Gary every single day, weekends as well. And I'm very happy to. Gary is incredibly interested in what is happening here. And has a command of the numbers that is very impressive given he has these other responsibilities, which have been outlined. Gary is in the parks and at SkyPoint on a regular basis, at least once a month. And it's just across the business in fine detail, knows the people, not only the executives, but knows cleaners at Dreamworld and has a relationship with them. So I completely understand this notion around overboarding. But I think you need to take into consideration the capacity of the person. And in this instance, I am well aware of Gary's involvement. He is involved with me on a daily basis and in a constructive way, this is not about Gary bringing me on a daily basis asking what's numbers what's happening, although we do have those conversations. Gary is particularly interested in how we're looking to grow this business over the long run. And so I couldn't speak more highly of my engagement with Gary. In fact, it's 1 of the fundamental reasons that I remain here at cost.

I can speak also on behalf of the other members of the Board. We are astounded at the amount of time and effort and creativity and enthusiasm that Gary puts into this company every day. And it was extremely disappointing to get a report as we did from ISS because it shows that there is really a lack of understanding of the actual participation of Gary in the day-to-day operations of Dreamworld and in leading this Board. So I can happily speak on behalf of all the Directors and we have absolutely no concerns about the fact that he has other responsibilities, and we're delighted to continue to serve under the Board under his leadership.

Are there any more questions, Chris?

No, that's it.

Okay. Thank you. So response regarding the only question response. Thank you. I'll now hand to Chair have I got to pass the resolution.

Thank you, David. And for those present, you may just I didn't interrupt any of the comments of Greg and David, it reminds me of a attributed to ask a while that is along the lines that the flatter seldom interrupted. Anyway, so...

Gary, do we have -- do we actually have to pass the -- I think...