AUGUST 2021

Outlook for holiday parks is 'incredibly positive'

Ingenia shakes off COVID blues to reveal 30pc rise in underlying profit

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INGENIA, which operates a chain of holiday and lifestyle parks, has emerged from 12 months of COVID hurdles and announced a whopping 30 percent increase in underlying profit for the financial year ending in June.

The group's revenue increased 21 percent to $295.6 million while earnings before income tax was up 31 percent to $94.4 million.

Its statutory profit hit $72.8 million, a 131 percent rise on the previous year.

The company declared a 5.5 cent final dividend, taking its full payout to 10.5c, a five percent increase on the previous year's 10c.

Chief executive Simon Owen described the group's performance as "strong" despite the challenging environment, demonstrating the overall resilience of the business.

"While we remain responsive to changes in trading conditions and are cautious about the impact of government restrictions, we are benefitting from the diversity of our community locations and revenue streams as we have continued to trade and grow," he said.

"Our holiday parks have experienced strong demand as international borders remain closed and, as a result, intrastate and interstate travel is buoyant."

He said there were now over 741,000 caravans and campervans registered in Australia ‒ the highest ever on record ‒ reflecting the increasing demand for domestic travel.

"With an unrivalled network of 29 coastal parks spanning from Torquay on the Victorian Surf Coast through to Cairns in tropical north Queensland, Ingenia is uniquely poised to benefit from many Australians new-found fondness to holiday at home.

"We believe the five-year outlook for our holiday parks is incredibly positive ... with considerable tailwinds in place."

Mr Owen said that despite a strong outlook, there was an element of short-term uncertainty due to lockdowns and government restrictions limiting travel.

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