Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the SkyCity Entertainment Group Financial Year 2022 Full Year Results. 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 will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. This call will end at 1:00 P.M. New Zealand Standard Time. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Michael Ahearne, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead. Tena koutou katoa. Welcome everyone to the SkyCity Financial Year 2022 Results Investor Call. I'd firstly like to recognize the traditional custodians of the land upon which all SkyCity sites sit. Ngā iwi o Tāmaki Makaurau in Auckland, Tainui in Hamilton, Ngāi Tahu in Queenstown, and Kaurna people in Adelaide. Ngā reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa. With me today in Auckland is Julie Amey, our Chief Financial Officer, Callum Mallett, our Chief Operating Officer in New Zealand, and Ben Kay, our General Manager of Strategy and Capital Markets. We're sitting here in New Zealand, still at the COVID-19 orange traffic light setting. Our FY 2022 investor presentation was released to the stock exchange earlier this morning. We want to take you up into the red and then focus on key themes and our observations across the period and leave time for Q&A. Turning to the key features of financial year 2022. I want to make some initial comments before asking Julie to provide an update on our financial and capital settings. I will then make some final comments around recent trading and the FY 2023 outlook before closing. Without question, financial year 2022 was an unprecedented period for SkyCity due to the significant disruptions from COVID-19 on our land-based casinos and the heightened regulatory focus across the casino industry. The COVID-19 settings and related property closures in New Zealand and Adelaide had a material impact on our financial performance during the period. As CEO, I'm really proud of the resilience and response of our team during this time. Our flagship property in Auckland was closed for 107 days during the first half, and similarly, Hamilton and Queenstown closed for lengthy periods and when able to open, operated under capacity limits and restrictions around social distancing. Our Adelaide property, while remaining open for the majority of the year, had to operate in a highly restricted environment due to COVID-19 settings, interstate border closures, and stay-at-home orders which materially impacted CBD visitation. Management took steps in response to COVID-19 disruptions, with a focus on cost and CapEx control and initiatives to support our balance sheet, including securing covenant waivers and amendments from our financier to address the significant earnings hit experienced over the period. We maintained a flexible operating model focused on customer experience and engagement, even when we were closed, and focused on our highest returning businesses. Clearly, our priority for management and the board has been the health and well-being of staff and customers. We've worked diligently to ensure a safe environment to operate in, to give our customers the confidence to return to our venues. Retention of staff has been a key priority for us as we knew our businesses would recover quickly as restrictions were relaxed. Pleasingly, when able to operate without restrictions, the local businesses, particularly gaming, performed strongly. Following operating restrictions being relaxed from mid-April 2022, the group returned to pre-COVID-19 revenue and earnings during May and June, underpinned by robust EGM activity, recovery of domestic tourism, and effective cost control. More specifically, the fourth quarter trading in Auckland following New Zealand's move to orange setting was encouraging, particularly from EGMs, with record activity being achieved on weekends and holiday peaks. Our table games business has been impacted by staff shortages and a slower return of local VIP customers. Overall, our flagship property delivered around NZD 20 million of EBITDA during both May and June, consistent with pre-COVID-19 levels. A sound achievement. Adelaide did not have the opportunity to deliver on its potential post-expansion during the period, primarily due to COVID-19 disruptions. However, we saw positive performance during the fourth quarter when operating restrictions were relaxed and domestic tourism in Australia started to recover. Eos by SkyCity, which is a world-class asset, has performed well versus the comp set and EGMs, while it should be said that our expectations are significantly higher for this business over the medium term, grew strongly versus PCP, taking share from a buoyant pub and club market in metropolitan Adelaide. Our VIP business saw modest customer activity resuming from March and April as international borders reopened and domestic Australian travel recovered. The business delivered positive EBITDA during the second half, with the revised operating model being leveraged. The performance of the New Zealand Online Casino was again a significant highlight of the period, with strong revenue and EBITDA growth despite an increasingly competitive landscape. Revenue was up 35% and EBITDA up 42% respectively. An exciting feature of the period was announcing the expansion of our strategic partnership with Gaming Innovation Group. By providing EUR 25 million of equity to support the funding of GIG's acquisition of Sportingbet, and in return, becoming a major shareholder, and I've joined the main GIG board. GIG is a fast-growing dynamic online operator who 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. We continue to support online casino regulation in New Zealand and hope for clarity from the New Zealand government before the end of 2022 as regards to their intentions regarding regulation. The Minister for the DIA has come out publicly in support of regulation, and we stand alongside her to ensure appropriate standards of host responsibility, AML compliance, and community benefits, which aren't provided by other operators under the current unregulated market, are met. We continue to believe that a significant omni-channel opportunity exists for SkyCity if the New Zealand online market regulates given the sizable addressable market which already exists in New Zealand, which we now estimate at NZD 350 million+. With regards to our strategic plan more broadly, there are no material changes to our strategic framework or priorities. Our strategic pillars continue to be underpinned by financial and capital settings, which Julie will expand on. Moving briefly on to the New Zealand International Convention Centre and Horizon Hotel in Auckland. We're seeing positive momentum on this project with roof construction to commence in October 2022, which is a significant milestone in terms of reinstating the building post-fire. However, the project remains complex, including insurance arrangements, but we remain comfortable with our contractual position. As previously flagged, we are pursuing an enhancement of our AML and host responsibility programs across the group, focused on continuous improvement. We've made significant disclosures in the FY 2022 investor presentation in terms of key enhancements and priorities across AML and host responsibility. This is a key focus for the board and managers. We continue to have regular dialogue with AUSTRAC as we progress the AML uplift program in Adelaide. Management remains fully committed to the enhancements, which include new senior AML resourcing in New Zealand and Adelaide, improved governance and investments in ICT systems and KYC processes, among others. Reflecting current and future risk settings and strategic priorities, the board has implemented changes to its committee structure with the establishment of a risk and compliance committee, which Kate Hughes will chair, and progressed significant renewal during the period with five new directors appointed. We continue to respond to the AUSTRAC enforcement investigation of Adelaide. We are fully cooperating with AUSTRAC and sharing information as requested. We are now on our sixth Section 167 information request, and we've shared thousands of documents and responded to the hundreds of questions. The timetable for completion of the investigation remains unclear. At this stage, AUSTRAC has not filed proceedings against SkyCity, but enforcement action, including potential material regulatory penalties, remains a possibility. As previously flagged, in early July 2022, CBS, the South Australian gaming regulator, advised that it appointed Mr. Martin QC to undertake an independent review into SkyCity Adelaide in light of interstate inquiries into various casino operations in Australia. We are fully cooperating with the review and look forward to its completion and findings. Mr. Martin QC is due to report back to CBS by February 2023. With regards to regulatory settings in New Zealand, we continue to have a constructive engagement and relationship with the DIA. Regular reviews are undertaken by the DIA on compliance, AML, and host responsibility. I'm now going to ask Julie to make some comments on our financial and capital position before I close. Julie. Michael, and kia ora to everyone this evening. As you've seen from our full-year 2022 financial results, we delivered a normalized EBITDA of NZD 137.9 million and a normalized NPAT of NZD 9.7 million. Clearly, this is a material reduction from our prior financial performance, which in itself is indicative of the significant impact from COVID-19 that Michael detailed earlier. However, this full-year result is in line with the market guidance that we provided during June 2022, and pleasingly, it also reflects a NZD 102 million uplift in normalized EBITDA from the group's interim financial results. On that note, I also want to call out that our fourth quarter of full year 2022 delivered circa NZD 72 million of normalized EBITDA, which is comparable to pre-COVID-19 earnings levels and gives additional credibility to the ramp-up in performance that we expect to see in full year 2023 and beyond. As Michael indicated, we were very pleased to see the continued resilience of our local gaming businesses across all of our properties, which responded positively as restrictions lessened and customer confidence returned. In particular, I want to call out that our EGMs, as our highest margin cost center, delivered around 50% of our group normalized revenue in full year 2022. It is also important to note that our full year 2022 financial performance includes the offsetting impact from decisions that management made during the year to help reduce the financial burden from COVID-19 and to ensure the sustained financial strength of the group throughout this hugely challenging period. These decisions include a NZD 14 million reduction in our planned same business capital spend, the deferral of non-competitive wage and salary increases through tight management of our vacancies. We also secured NZD 17 million of COVID relief that was available to our New Zealand businesses, which was in part offset by about NZD 1.5 million spent on unplanned COVID-19 safeguards. In addition, the businesses continued to adjust operating hours and shifts to ensure that our resources remain focused on maximizing earnings that were available in a safe and compliant way. I want to emphasize that these decisions were made with no compromise of our health and safety improvements and with no compromise of our compliance obligations and uplifts that remain fundamental to our license to operate. On that note, we spent some NZD 9 million on AML and host responsibility regulatory compliance across the group in full year 2022. This included ongoing program enhancements, expert advice, IT upgrades, and responding to enforcement and other requests. While some of this is one-off spend, as we highlighted in our interim results, we do fully expect a higher baseline of compliance costs on the back of increasing requirements and expectations from our regulators. We also continue to support our communities through full year 2022, with over NZD 6 million distributed through our trusts, through levies and initiatives, which remain a core foundation of our group. This includes valuable support to youth employment through initiatives such as Project Nikau and TupuToa. We are also very proud of the impact we make through partnerships and sponsorships with organizations such as Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand., Women in Sport, and of course, Rugby World Cup 2021, which finally kicks off on the 8th of October. As we shared during our interim results presentation, our priority throughout the year has been to preserve our most important asset, which is our people. Our people are a critical enabler to ensuring a rapid ramp-up in operations when we are able to be open. Our business performance in the second half of full year 2022 demonstrates that retaining and engaging our people during this challenging time was a very sound decision as we have been able to respond quickly as restrictions were lifted and customers returned. Linked to this, I draw your attention to the charts on page 13 of the Investor presentation, which clearly demonstrate the resilient nature of our local gaming business over the last 20 years through several economic cycles and external shocks. We continue to see the rapid bounce back of our revenues when we are able to optimize our operations, even when the environment in which we operate is changing. Of course, our people are core to this. Moving on to our balance sheet. We further strengthened the financial resilience of our business during full year 2022 by removing considerable funding risk with debt covenant waivers for the December 2021 and June 2022 testing periods. We also secured a variation to December 2022 testing period as an extra precaution against residual COVID-19 related uncertainty. Although based on the performance we are currently seeing, we expect that this variation will not be required. We've continued to receive great support from our financiers who have been able to look through the uncertainty that we and many other businesses are facing. This was reinforced again a couple of weeks ago through the support we received from our financier for the early refinancing of NZD 160 million of debt facilities that were due to mature in mid-2023. On that last point, I want to emphasize that we have and will continue to carry significant levels of funding liquidity headroom as a safeguard against our near-term uncertainties. Our liquidity headroom is currently at levels circa three times higher than our treasury policy requires in a normal operating environment. Our current capital management approach is to retain these levels until we have more clarity on any implications on our business from future material uncertainties, including COVID-19, macroeconomic factors, and potential regulatory penalties. One final area that I want to give you an update on is the discussions we are having with Macquarie Principal Finance regarding the Auckland Carpark Concession Agreement. As highlighted in our interim financial statements, we continue to work with Macquarie on the late delivery of the car parks that were compromised as a result of the NZICC fire back in 2019. While reinstatement of the car parks is underway, it is likely they will not be delivered to Macquarie on time. There is a comprehensive disclosure in our financial statements, but I do want to call out that this late delivery could give rise to a contractual right on the twenty-sixth of October, which allows Macquarie to exercise their right to terminate the concession agreement. If Macquarie do decide to exercise their right to terminate, this will ultimately result in us taking back operational control of all of the car parks covered by the concession agreement. This will be for a consideration to be determined by a process as detailed in the agreement. To date, Macquarie has not indicated their intentions. As a reminder, the Auckland Carpark business is a high-quality integrated operating asset that is a key driver for local value visitation, with earnings of NZD 15-20 million EBITDA per annum. While a car park buyback is not part of our current discretionary capital strategy, it is a valuable asset with strong earnings. As you would expect, we are progressing credible options for financing a potential buyback should Macquarie exercise their rights. These options range from viable self-help using existing resources through to securing new debt that sits within our longer-term capital management strategy. Finally, before I hand back to Michael for his closing remarks, I do want to reinforce again that we remain fully committed to our dividend policy and the reinstatement of distributions once we exit our debt covenant waiver restrictions. Many thanks for listening. Now back over to Michael for a trading update. Thanks, Julie. I wanted to make a few comments around recent trading and the financial year 2023 outlook before closing. I'm pleased to say that the strong growth trends observed in the fourth quarter have carried over into financial year 2023 year to date, and we're looking forward to New Zealand moving into the green setting at some point in the future. We've achieved strong group revenue performance during financial year 2023 year to date. Group revenue is comparable to pre-COVID-19 levels, including IB, with group local revenue up 14% on pre-COVID-19 levels. The domestic consumer environment remains positive, and the properties are benefiting from an extended period without operating restrictions and an ongoing recovery of domestic visitation. Combined New Zealand revenue has been consistent with pre-COVID-19 levels, with positive local gaming performance, particularly EGMs in Auckland and Hamilton. Table games revenue remains below pre-COVID-19 levels. We've seen a strong start in FY 2023 in Adelaide following a positive fourth quarter, with 10% EGM market share achieved. The strong start to the year provides confidence around our pathway back to pre-COVID-19 group EBITDA, which we expect to achieve in FY 2023, assuming no significant changes to the operating environment and settings. While we are seeing strong revenue performance year to date, we are also seeing significant cost pressures across the group. We expect our earnings in FY 2023 to be predominantly derived by our cash generative domestic businesses that leverage the recovery of international tourism following opening of international borders. Significant and ongoing focus on cost control and operational efficiencies are required to address inflationary pressures and increased compliance costs. A focus on people, retention, and recruitment will be critical to the delivery of our FY 2023 budget. Staff shortages are expected to be a challenge over the medium term. We've recently increased wages and salaries for staff across the group, which was particularly satisfying following effectively a two-year pay freeze in response to COVID-19 disruptions. In summary, FY 2022 was a really challenging year, but our key priorities as a management team remain unchanged. We have an absolute focus on executing our operational strategies, which includes maintaining high standards of customer service while ensuring our financial resilience to set the business up for success. We remain focused on successful execution of NZICC and leveraging the benefits of our investments in Adelaide and Auckland and delivering on the omni-channel opportunity in New Zealand. Responding to regulatory reviews in Adelaide and ongoing enhancements of our AML and host responsibility programs obviously remains a key priority for management and the board. I want to personally thank all of our investors, shareholders, and financiers, both on this call and more broadly, for your ongoing support. Finally, I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge that this is Ben Kay's last financial results after eight and a half years leading our investor relations function. Ben is taking on an exciting new role as CFO of a leading New Zealand VC firm. I'm sure you will join me in thanking Ben for his commitment to engaging and addressing the investment community during his time at SkyCity, and in wishing him all the best. I will now hand back to the operator for Q&A. Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star then two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble the roster. Our first question will come from Mark Robertson of Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead. Thank you, operator, and good day to Michael, Julie, and Ben. Congratulations on what looks like a pretty solid result, given a pretty tough operating environment. I'm keen for you to just expand a little bit on what you're seeing in terms of the labor constraints and cost inflation pressure. I appreciate you've given a little bit of guidance for that. Given, I guess, the high level of vacancy, is it possible to expect a little bit of a step-up in FY 2024 and future years as you fill those positions and then the underlying, I guess, cost inflation comes through? Good morning, Mark. Look, what I would say is right now we've about 400 vacancies across the group. You know, that's effectively for demand that we see today. Now we're making progress. That number was 500 a month ago. We are making progress on recruitment, but it is challenging. You know, there's no doubt about it's challenging. I look at it as opportunity in the long term it means that we have demand from a customer perspective, across our business. You know, one of the things the team are doing really well is allocating the resources we have to the most profitable businesses and like, you know, the way we run our restaurants and so on, we focus on the hours that are most profitable, and therefore you see that refinement happening. We're particularly focused on areas, you know, such as table games as an example, because that is an important business for us. You know, that there's a particular focus on recruiting staff there and we're making progress. What I'd say from a cost perspective, and probably Auckland's most recent, and the largest, so it'd be worth just giving you an update. We've recently. We just applied it 70% of our workforce given to our frontline team, given the pay increase that ranges between 4%-13%, which gives you some color on the type of wages that had averaged about 6% for that frontline group. You know, that's some color. You know, I think there'll be some questions. We are managing that inflation well, and you know, have a number of offsetting elements to deal with. That's awesome. Thanks very much. Yeah, congratulations, Ben, on the new role. All the best. Thank you. Thanks, Mark. The next question comes from Justin Barratt of CLSA. Please go ahead. Hi, guys. Thanks very much for your time. I just wanted to follow up on Julie's comments in relation to the dividend. I think you alluded to the fact, Julie, that dividends are likely to be paid in the interim of FY 2023 if you can meet the full covenant. I just wanted to confirm that was the case, and if you could give us any indication of what those covenants are, that'd be greatly appreciated as well. Look, I'll make a comment. Obviously dividends are dependent on earnings, so that's the first thing I'd say. You know, subject to the earnings being as we expect them to be and to continue, our intention is to put the board in a position so that they can, you know, make that decision. I don't know, Julie, do you wanna comment on that? Yeah. I'll just add that the covenant we're referring to, we have a waiver on our debt gearing covenant. So we just need to pass the standard test. All indications are at the moment with the performance we've seen that we've passed the standard test on that. Yeah. Fantastic. That's very clear. Appreciate it. The next question comes from David Fabris of Macquarie. Please go ahead. Hi, Michael. Hi, Julie. Look, we can see the strong trading that's coming through in the June quarter into FY 2023 and the comments you expect to recover the pre-pandemic EBITDA in 2023. To help us understand this, can you talk through any structural improvements you've made to the business, particularly on the domestic side since COVID, to drive revenues? I mean, we can see the expansion in Adelaide pretty clearly, but have there been any changes to floor configurations or changes to loyalty in New Zealand? I'm just trying to think how you could do better on the revenue side versus pre-pandemic levels. I'll make a few comments, and I might get Callum Mallett to talk a little bit more specifically about the Auckland, New Zealand business. Look, the first thing I would say is that the structure of earnings in this financial year is different to, you know, 2019. You know, some examples would be, we have an online business now, you know, which generated something like NZD 13 million in the prior year. That's a feature. But that's the international business, which was a large contributor back in 2019, we expect that to be substantially smaller. You know, we are seeing growth in some of our high-margin businesses. EGM performance across the group has been really encouraging, and that has a really nice flow through to earnings. You know, there's some of those elements from a mix perspective that are assisting us. I might get Callum to talk about some more specific things and what we were doing operationally to help ourselves. Thanks, Michael. Thanks for the question, David. Look, from a New Zealand perspective, there's been significant changes to the operating model, not one outstanding feature, but multiple things we've looked at. Firstly, what I'd say is in the last three to four months, we've finally been able to leverage our investments that we've made across the last couple of years. Most importantly, those are around our Eight table games room, Ultra and Black EGM room, and also the investments we've made in and around the main gaming floor in Auckland with both Flair Bar and Food Republic. On top of that, we've got new attractions, so All Blacks, Wētā and SkySlide. Again, we've never really had the opportunity to leverage those. That's sort of a quick first point. From an operating model, we've made significant changes across the last few years, and some of them forced upon us by COVID and some decisions that we knew were the right productivity initiatives to put in place. Particularly in Hamilton and Auckland, we've seen significant changes to operating hours. In Hamilton, for instance, now we close the entire site midweek for a few hours each day. In Auckland, we have different operating hours, particularly around food and beverage. Where we can, we're making sure that we're passing through all of the costs that we're seeing, and food and beverage is an obvious example of a space we're able to do that. Been working really closely with our suppliers to make sure we leverage our buying power through them. We've been really focused on leveraging existing technology that we have, simplest form, through Kronos, our rostering system, to make sure we're really rostering efficiently, but also bringing in significant new automation measures. Particularly around F&B, you know, we've got new pastry machines, chocolate machines and now robotic waiters that some of you may have seen. Really trying to make sure that we're more productive and where we can, you know, making up for that challenge in the labor space. We've also really focused on split. Food and beverage, for example, really focused on beverage versus food split. There's been considerable work done with gaming consideration, but really the biggest changes in that has been in that Eight, Ultra, and Black room space. I appreciate the color there. Can I sneak in one more question? Go ahead. Thank you. Look, just with the Adelaide inquiry, I mean, what are your thoughts around New Zealand going the same way? I mean, the issues across IB wouldn't just be contained to Australia, I wouldn't have thought. Look, there's no indication from the DIA that such an inquiry would be undertaken. We have a strong relationship with the DIA. The DIA undertake regular reviews and audits of our systems and practices, you know, our compliance. They have that responsibility. That's a feature of how the DIA regulate us. Yeah. Okay. Look, listen to watching brief. Appreciate the insights. Thank you. Thanks, mate. The next question comes from Rohan Sundram of MST Financial. Please go ahead. Hi, team. Might start with a question just on the environment, and appreciate the tables are lagging slots, but are tables improving as we're seeing the consumer stresses? If they are, I'm just wondering if you're seeing any signs of consumer stress or pockets of weakness anywhere in your portfolio. Looks like you're more than able to offset it elsewhere. David, I'm struggling to hear you on that. What's Consumer... You might just repeat that question, sorry. Oh, yeah. I just wanted to understand. I appreciate it's a really strong start to the year and a very good fourth quarter, but we are seeing signs of consumer stress, and I'm coming from a positive angle with this. I'm just wondering if you are seeing any weakness anywhere in your portfolio other than tables. If the softness is in tables, is that actually recovering at a time when consumer stresses are increasing, which is a positive element? Look, what I would say is not all of our businesses have recovered to pre-COVID levels. Obviously, EGMs has and actually is beyond that. That's very helpful in an organization that has a very high weighting to EGM revenue. As you call out, table games is not back at pre-COVID levels. IB is an example in that, you know, while there's been a recovery, it's minimal. What we're seeing is VIP Australian business largely in that business. International tourism is very light. You know, let's say in Auckland, for example, we would be a business that would see a lot of flow through from, you know, tourists coming to venues like Sky Tower, flowing through our restaurants. We don't see that. It's probably worth calling out here in New Zealand, we are still at the orange setting. I think I said it on the call there. We're still at the orange setting, so there is restrictions in play. All of our staff, for example, if you're working in the property are still wearing masks. That still has a flow through to consumer sentiment. I think that when we eventually do move to green or those settings removed, there's potentially a pause in there as well. That's a little bit of color for you. Thank you. Just one more. Just a quick one on IB. I noticed it was a stronger, much stronger turnover half, a good rebound in the second half. As you progress with that business, and taking into account the structural changes you just talked about, can that business get back to a pre-COVID type of margin that it used to do? Look, I think it's highly unlikely the IB business gets back to where it was previously. You know, from an earnings point of view. You know, I think that's our view. Like, you know we obviously don't deal with junkets anymore. We've reduced differentials. We've gotten, you know, much stronger processes around source of wealth and so on. You know, I think that'd be my view on it. No, sorry. Yeah, that's fine. I'm just, is that margin potential still there even off a much smaller base in a potentially smaller business? The specific on the margin of the business? Yeah. Look, I think so. Yeah. No, I think so. Obviously, we have to manage that business in a different way than we did in the past. I think, yeah. When I look at every part of our business, we are looking for a way to maintain or enhance margin to offset the pressures that we have. That's a consistent theme I think you find across every part of our business. Okay. Thanks, Michael. Appreciate it. Yeah. The next question comes from Larry Gandler of Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Thanks, guys, for taking my question. Good morning. I wanna just maybe clarify some things on cost, particularly in Auckland. Obviously, with the structural changes you put in place, I sense that perhaps your cost base, despite the inflation in wages, may be below your FY 2019 base. Is that sort of directionally how to think about it? Or do you think it'll be higher than FY 2019 base, and we need revenues really to drive EBITDA? Look, Larry, at a high level, you are correct in that the operating model that we have now requires less operating hours to run, even though the actual individual cost of labor is higher because we're putting up wages. You know, that's a view. Now, over time, we will get to a point, we hope, that we're gonna require more and more of those hours, you know. You know, I think that's how I'd view that. Callum or Julie, anything you want to add to that? Just stay from it. To use food and beverage as an example, Larry, you know, pre-COVID, we were running at around a 15% margin. We're confident this year and what we've seen in the last few months that we'll be up, more like 20% margin in F&B, which is, you know, showing obviously what we're doing around labor, but some of those other initiatives I talked about as well. Okay, great. If revenues were flat, you'd say your OpEx would be. When I say flat with pre-COVID, your OpEx would be lower than pre-COVID. Yes. I call out, we have increased costs of compliance that we are offsetting some of that. You know, so you know, electricity and utilities is another feature of business. You know, we're in a world of trying to maintain our group margin. That's how I would describe it, and that has many factors that come into that. Okay, great. A similar related follow-up question would be on corporate costs. The guidance came in sort of below where I was thinking. I think at one point there was this thinking that corporate costs would be significantly higher than FY 2022 and FY 2023 because of things like AML and compliance. Now your guidance is for a similar number. What's changed there? Well, Larry, the additional compliance costs, we are pushing those back into the business units. That's basically within the businesses. There might be a lack of alignment. You know, with those costs which are higher, we're pushing those back to the business units. Okay, excellent. Thanks, guys. Next question comes from Marcus Curley of UBS. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, Michael and Julie. I just wanted, Michael, if you just talk to Adelaide first and foremost. You know, could you be a little bit more specific in terms of what, you know, level of EBITDA you think that property is capable of delivering in the upcoming year? Just remind us of, you know, the long-term targets you referred to, you know, in the presentation. Yeah. The long term, we are not changing our view on the property. That's getting to AUD 60 million EBITDA. That's been our long-term view on that property. We don't see it getting there. It's gonna ramp up, so it's not getting there in FY 2023, but it should be well on the path to getting there without giving you a specific number. Now, Adelaide is a business that the margin there is under even more pressure, I would say, than the New Zealand margin, you know, from a variety of costs, including compliance costs. We need the revenue to get there. Look, early start in revenue this year has been positive. You know, you'll see in our results on EGMs. EGM growth really has been outstanding at the start of the year. I think we're 70% up in July or something of that magnitude. Now with the previous July that were closed for some days. You know, that level of growth is really positive. We're about 10% market share in July on a market that was growing very significantly. Maybe a different way of asking the same question, Michael. You know, any color on, you know, what level of EBITDA, you know, the casino's producing in the, you know, in the first few months? Yeah. Look, Curley, I don't really wanna get into the detail. Like, you know, in the first couple of months, the revenue translates well to EBITDA. Yeah, I think we're on the right path there. Okay. Secondly, Michael, maybe you can talk to you know the prospects of online regulation in New Zealand next year. I'm not sure how recently you've had an update you know from the government, but you know a bit of color in terms of you know what you think the timeframes and the program looks like over the next 12 months. Yeah. Look, the DIA have completed their work. The minister is on the record now, saying the right thing to do, and she supports regulation of online gaming. It's effectively the government will need to make a decision if there's a priority. Does it fit within their priorities of legislation for this or not? I think we're in their hands, effectively. I can't give any guidance on when it will happen, though. It goes into the mix of the legislative priorities for the government. I think, you know, what I would say is the market here online has grown significantly. We're now estimating it that it's NZD 350 million, which to put in context, is more than the slot revenue in the Auckland property, you know. To not put regulation on cash and, you know, and particularly in harm and so on, you know. My view is at some point, this is going to be regulated. It's still that. It's really good to have, you know, the minister coming out publicly saying that she supports regulation. Okay. Thank you. The next question comes from Adrian Allbon of Jarden. Please go ahead. Oh, good afternoon, team. Can you hear me okay? Hi, Adrian. We got you, Adrian. Perhaps a question for Michael, maybe even Callum. I know the averages, like if you thought about EGM revenue per machine has sort of been a bit distorted through this last period. Are you able to give us a sense of what they've sort of been in the last quarter for Auckland? Like, I noticed at Hamilton in the second half, like they're running at sort of NZD 190 per machine, whereas sort of our previous sort of averages on Auckland are middle end of pre-COVID sort of sitting more like NZD 130-NZD 150 per machine. Can you just give us a sense of what Auckland EGM revenue per machine is running at? Yeah, I'll give you. Firstly, you're right in terms of last year. They're just distorted because Auckland closed, and we can't really tell anything from them. Maybe I'll get Callum to give some comments in relation to you know, Auckland or Hamilton on what win per unit looks like. From a win per unit to date perspective, Auckland, we're north of 400 and likewise Hamilton north of 400 are the numbers, Adrian. Sorry. That's NZD 400 of revenue per machine? Per day. Per day. Correct. Okay. Per day, is it? Yes, per day. Correct. How would that have compared to sort of pre-COVID? Obviously, you would have had more machines probably in operation in Auckland. Machines haven't changed considerably. At the moment, our run rate is either even to pre-COVID or slightly up. Is there any differentiation, like I know in an earlier question, Callum, you were talking about the impact of the EIGHT room and the BLACK. What's the differential on those rooms? Considerable differential between main gaming floor versus those rooms, but also main gaming floor versus smoking balconies. You know, anywhere on the average, you're talking double to triple in the VIP rooms than what you are on the main gaming floor. Okay. That's helpful. I guess like, in your guidance for 2023 back to pre-COVID levels, like are you expecting that like that NZD 400 mark to sort of soften across the year? Or what's the expectation in terms of that assumption, just so we can sort of get a sense of the leverage? Look at it. Well, look, our expectations for the financial year at a group level, firstly in getting back to pre-COVID levels, I think it's fair to say that we've had a nice strong start, you know. Probably in some ways the start of the year has been a little bit or the recovery's come a little bit sooner than we're anticipating. That will be the case. You know, we've seen similar like, you know, getting individual revenue on gaming machines, consistent sort of performance would be my comment. Look, I'd comment. You know, I think there was a question earlier about different segments. Not all segments of our gaming machine business, for example, are back to where our expectations is from. Some components are performing very well. I'll give you an example. The mass component of our gaming machine business in Auckland is doing really, really well, higher than we've seen before. You walk on, let's say, a Friday, Saturday night at the casino, it really looks busy because it is, you know. With some Saturdays that would have been the sort of levels that we'd have had on a New Year's Eve on a regular Saturday. There's some segments we're seeing it that haven't recovered yet. You know, that's we look at that as good news in terms of we expect those segments to recover in time as well. Okay. That's good. Can I just ask a couple more? Maybe this one's more for Julie. Like just on that Macquarie car park, if that option did get triggered, presumably that would make it difficult for you to reinstate a dividend at the first half. Is that logic correct? Yeah. Thanks for the question. Actually, not necessarily. Actually, we've got a lot of really credible, viable options for us. We are carrying a lot of liquidity headroom. We have some self-help that we could take from the balance sheet as well in terms of how we are allocating our other capital items. We know there's a pathway to bringing in some new debt as well. It's not a given that there would not be a dividend. You know, there might be a chance that it's not the higher end of the dividend policy, but we're still committed to the dividend policy. We're just working through that at the moment. Of course, you know, we may not know for a while about what Macquarie's intent is as well. The timing of it is a bit skewed for us at the moment too. Okay. No, that's good. Thank you. Thanks, Adrian. The next question is a follow-up from Larry Gandler of Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Yeah, thanks again for taking the follow-up. Just in terms of your very strong performance, just wondering if both in Auckland and Adelaide, you can comment as to whether you're seeing visitation levels return to pre-COVID or it's largely driven by increased spend per player? Particularly in Adelaide, where I think mobility data is really suggesting the CBD is nowhere near back in terms of frequenting and travel. Let me cover Adelaide first. Look, Adelaide is a different property to what it was pre-COVID, like, you know, just in terms of size, scale, hotel, now more restaurants. It's really difficult to sort of compare like-for-like to before. What I would say, what we have seen is a positive trend on visitation recovery, you know, now from March, April, May, June, July, continuous growth on visitation, and as the CBD recovers. That has been pretty continuous, which is encouraging. I think we're pretty pleased with what we're seeing there. Yet we also believe there's more to come. You know, we're certainly not there yet. In relation to New Zealand, the visitation level is not back at what it was pre-COVID. I put that down to international traffic through our precincts, which is a reasonable number. It is effectively very light right now, like cruise ships, as an example, and just the natural international traffic from tourism that you'd have in Auckland, that's very light. That isn't represented in our visitation numbers. They are, you know, still reasonably well down on 20% down to give you a number on sort of pre-COVID levels. Great. Thank you. Okay. There are no further questions. I'm just gonna say I think there's no questions there. I look forward to engaging with the investment community over the next week or so. Thank you all for your time on the call. Thank you. Thanks all. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.