Check out what will drive Genting Hong Kong's 2013 earnings

Three ships from NCL expected to rake in US$150m each.

According to CIMB, operationally, GENHK's three units -Star Cruises, RWM and NCL - met its expectations except for significantly lower interest expense at its 50%-owned RWM (almost halved  from US$61m last year to US$33m). 

Here's more:

As guided previously by management, RWM was hit by a weak win rate and higher operating costs in the second half with FY12 EBITDA only growing 9.5% yoy to US$235m despite a 14% increase in revenue to US$752m.

The bulk of its 43% net-profit growth in FY12 was hence led by financial leverage of lower interest expense.

We expect EBITDA margins to narrow to 28% in FY13 from 31% in FY12 on the back of competition from the new Solaire casino. We expect RWM net profit to stay flat in FY13. 

NCL a key earnings driver. Net profit at 42%-owned NCL grew 35% yoy to US$168m, as expected, on the back of operating leverage from a 2.6% increase in revenue to US$2.3bn.

NCL is expected to spur much of  GENHK's earnings in the next three years with the delivery of one new ship in Apr 13 and another in Jan 14. Each ship is expected to add US$150m to its EBITDA. 

Asian cruising stable. Asian cruise revenue and EBITDA grew 5% in 2H12, aided by a  recovering gaming business. We expect 16% EBITDA growth this year on the deployment of its newly-refurbished Gemini to Shanghai.