In the quarter, we increased our position in Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH, Financial), an operator of cruise ships under the Norwegian, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas brands, because we see strong synergies in their recent Prestige acquisition, which closed last November. We think there should be both revenue and cost synergies as the company should cross market the brands to its customers and continue to grow its market-leading yields. Norwegian also has an opportunity to significantly lower costs given no increased scale. Synergies combined with a strong pipeline of new ships coming online in each of the next five years should lead to higher yields and increased margins and free cash flow. Management has indicated they will use this excess free cash flow for possible share buybacks or the initiation of a dividend, both of which we view as positive for the stock. (David Baron)
From Baron Funds' second quarter 2015 commentary.
