American Tower Corp at JPMorgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference Transcript

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

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : Steve, it's been a little bit over a year since you took over as President and CEO. What were your biggest goals that you set out to accomplish last year? And what are your top priorities this year?

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : That's great. In terms of the capital priorities, we'll come back to that, but I just wanted to stick with the organic growth portion. We've been through a couple of, call it, next G cycles, 4G, now 5G. And it seems to follow a pattern where you get this initial outlay of upgrading and coverage and getting to the new kind of generation technology rolled out, but then there's a bit of a lull and then densification wave, and it seems like that wave is starting. Can you talk a little bit about what you've seen in the past and what you're seeing now and how long, I guess, this densification wave could go on?

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst :

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : No. And it seems like those weren't conversations we were having about a year ago or nine months ago.

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : Got it. You reaffirmed your guidance on -- in terms of new activity of $65 million to $170 million, but the year is starting off a little bit slow, and it seems like there will be a pretty big ramp in the back half. Are you still confident that this ramp is coming? And what gives you that confidence?

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : And do you feel like you have pretty good visibility out over the next 6 to 12 months? Or where do you feel like your level of confidence is in terms of visibility?

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : And can we talk a little bit about how AMT approaches these MLAs? And it's interesting that you mentioned it, but because it's -- maybe you have less precontracted revenue, doesn't mean you really don't have pretty good visibility in what they're going to do just because it's not contracted, does it mean they're not going to do it?

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : I think in the past, there's been times where people thought that it was a more adversarial relationship. But from what you're saying, it seems like sometimes priorities are just not meshing up or whatnot. But in the end, you're trying to help each other kind of do the best you can for what needs to get done. Is that the right way to think about the one carrier that's not in deployment? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 13, 2025 / 2:50PM, AMT.N - American Tower Corp at JPMorgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : No, that makes sense. One of the other things I wanted to touch on was your services business. It's been a little bit stronger to start and will be -- it looks like for the first half. One, can you recap a little bit of what you're doing for your carrier customers? And why has it been a little bit stronger than we had expected to start?

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : And it doesn't really impact your leasing number as much. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 13, 2025 / 2:50PM, AMT.N - American Tower Corp at JPMorgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : One last question on the US business before going to international. Late yesterday, there were some headlines regarding DISH, [SAT's], EchoStar in terms of the SEC reviewing thing. I don't think anyone has any idea what's going to end up happening. But in terms of them reviewing their network build-out, what's AMT's exposure? And how do you approach a where DISH has been under some pressure in terms of capital markets and whatnot. So.

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : Great. Moving to the international business. You talked earlier about having a different capital allocation, now that India has been sold and the portfolio you have today in Europe, Latin America and Africa, can you talk a little bit about where you're focusing, I guess, more attention and capital? And then you talked a little bit also about the global operations and maybe streamlining that. So as an overall international business, can you give us a little bit an update on the strategy there?

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : In terms of your international kind of developed versus emerging, what kind of growth profile are you looking for in those two on a relative basis to maybe the US?

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : I was going to ask this later, but since you brought it up, it seems like the Latin America markets, to your point, is going through a bit of a consolidation period. It's going to last a little bit. But overall, the long-term track record, both in -- well, relatively in FX and growth has been a pretty good market. Do you feel like that's still a long-term priority in Latin America?

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : Got it. When you entered Europe, I think there was some kind of questions around what could European growth look like? I think people overall were maybe skewed a little bit negative, but Europe has really turned out well for American Tower. Can you kind of recap a little bit on, I guess, the decision to enter and how has that turned out relative to those initial expectations?

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : There's been -- well, I'll ask you, do you feel like -- are you comfortable in increasing that developed market through organic means? Or are you seeing more inorganic opportunities in Europe?

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : And kind of going back to, I guess, your build guidance, 2,000 to about 2,500. Can you break out where that's supposed to be for people that might not know? And what our commitments going to look like post this year? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 13, 2025 / 2:50PM, AMT.N - American Tower Corp at JPMorgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : Moving on to data centers because when you acquired CoreSite, I think people were like, why is the tower company acquiring a data center company, but the acquisition has turned out very well. Can you give us a little update on what's driven the strong growth? How are you approaching the capital investment in CoreSite? And where do you see that going over the next year or two?

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : And it seems like with AI inferencing and, call it, higher-end cloud compute, connectivity and latency and interconnection is becoming a lot more important, and I think part of the longer-term strategy with CoreSite was eventually this level of connectivity and low latency might actually get pushed to towers. Are you seeing some initial signs of that? And how long are you willing -- or is American Tower going to kind of go down this road of owning a data center when you could probably sell it for a really high price. So where are you in that evaluation of that strategy.

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : Last question for me. You talked about capital allocation as a key priority. As leverage comes down, as investment opportunities maybe inorganically or builds might not be the right move. When do share buybacks really come into play? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 13, 2025 / 2:50PM, AMT.N - American Tower Corp at JPMorgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst : No, that gives you a lot of options.