American Tower Corp at Bank of America Global Real Estate Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Dave Barden - BofA Global Research (US) - Analyst : Perfect. So I want to start off by congratulating Texas Christian University and the Horned Frogs for their overwhelming underdog victory against Long Island University, 45 to 0. How did it happen? How did you guys do it?

Question: Dave Barden - BofA Global Research (US) - Analyst : With Wisconsin. Okay. This is a long-time rivalry here. So I guess what I'd like to do is to -- Jeff is asking us to ask all the companies a few questions about the general kind of demand environment around real estate. And I know American Tower is not your typical real estate company, but -- so I'll try to couch this question. Do you think that sector M&A will grow when the Fed cuts, yes or no? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 10, 2024 / 5:30PM, AMT.N - American Tower Corp at Bank of America Global Real Estate Conference

Question: Dave Barden - BofA Global Research (US) - Analyst : Do you think that, that would happen in the second half of this year? Or the first half of next year? Or maybe the second half of next year?

Question: Dave Barden - BofA Global Research (US) - Analyst : Okay. Would you say that demand for tower space is increasing, steady or decreasing?

Question: Dave Barden - BofA Global Research (US) - Analyst : Perfect. And then last year, the majority of companies said that they expected a ramp-up in their AI initiatives in 2024. How would you characterize your plans and your outlook?

Question: Dave Barden - BofA Global Research (US) - Analyst : I think that that's interesting because I think a lot of people think about the tower business and one of its strengths as being its simplicity. But when you dig in, you realize how not simple being a tower company is. All the contracts, all the data points, all the elements of the SLAs and the agreements that you have. I mean there's a gigantic data lake inside these companies that I imagine could -- lends itself to an idea of being automated and greater efficiency. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 10, 2024 / 5:30PM, AMT.N - American Tower Corp at Bank of America Global Real Estate Conference

Question: Dave Barden - BofA Global Research (US) - Analyst : So before we jump into the business, remind us. There's a debate out there, I think that we all maybe know that whoever wins the presidential election kind of doesn't matter to the tower industry. But what if there is a recession? What if there's hyperinflation? How does the tower sector respond to these types of variances in the economic climate?

Question: Dave Barden - BofA Global Research (US) - Analyst : Can you repeat the question?

Question: Dave Barden - BofA Global Research (US) - Analyst : Just to repeat the -- what's the outlook, the rate of growth that we think might happen in 2025, coming out of 2024?

Question: Dave Barden - BofA Global Research (US) - Analyst : Maybe in that question, too, I think, is there technology risk that, that threatens the inherent value of relationship between the tower company and the wireless company? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 10, 2024 / 5:30PM, AMT.N - American Tower Corp at Bank of America Global Real Estate Conference

Question: Dave Barden - BofA Global Research (US) - Analyst : And I also think that -- so let's just zoom out a little bit. So number one, is there's only three ways to create wireless capacity. So if you make an assumption that wireless needs will grow, there's three ways to do it. You've got technology, X, Y, Z; you've got the number of cell sites; and you've got the amount of spectrum. And the most efficient way to broadcast wireless spectrum is probably satellite, but the next most efficient way is the tower. So the economic reality of the situation kind of hinges on this idea that there's rising wireless demand. There's finite ways to address that demand. And towers are the most economic way to address that demand. And you own the largest portfolio of domestic towers worldwide, publicly-traded company. China has probably got something to say about that. But I think that that's where the inherent real estate value comes from, is that the amount of people -- tenants that are going to be wanted within these very finite number of beachfront sites around the country is going to rise. And so then the question -- another question would be, to what degree do you believe you have defensibility around the fact that there's 125,000 freestanding metal structures in this country, why are there not 250,000? Why aren't there 0.5 million? What's going to happen there?

Question: Dave Barden - BofA Global Research (US) - Analyst : You alluded to that.

Question: Dave Barden - BofA Global Research (US) - Analyst : And I would maybe just throw out there that Sampath, the CEO of Verizon Wireless Consumer, last week at our conference, highlighted that when they have a fiber connection, the wireless churn is about half what it would not -- what it would be without the fiber connection, which I think, if the question is, does this new found interest in fiber distract the wireless players, for instance, from spending on the mobile networks, or -- I think the answer is no. I think what the interest in doing this is to make the wireless business more valuable and it accrues more value to mobile, which gives them more resources to invest in the mobile business. And I think that that's really what the impetus of that is. It's not a distraction from the mobile business. It's actually part of being interested in being a successful mobile operator. And what's interesting about that is that the more fiber that we put out there, does that put more pressure on the cable industry to maybe take this idea of building out their mobile networks from an owner's economic standpoint more seriously? They have not really taken it very seriously. But that's potentially super interesting. We only have three minutes left. What do you want to talk about? So I think maybe just while we wrap up, real quick with American Tower's pitch on the data center business. Because we're going to be talking to the data center companies later. We'd love to hear your perspective on how business is going, what is the opportunity? And how much of your resources now that you're reaching your leverage target are you prepared to commit incrementally to the data center business?

Question: Dave Barden - BofA Global Research (US) - Analyst : It's a great place to leave it. Thank you so much, Adam. Thank you everybody for joining. Appreciate it.