American Tower Corp at Moffettnathanson Media & Communications Summit (Virtual) Transcript

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

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Yes. Well, listen, let's dive right in. Let's start with the domestic side of the house. You're going to be facing some headwinds from Sprint related churn in the coming years, but you've been pretty transparent about what that impact will be. And so investors seem most interested in understanding the outlook for gross leasing. I think one of the more exciting aspects of the domestic lease and outlook is C band, which Verizon and AT&T, in particular, will be deploying over the coming years. You have an MLA with Verizon, and you've noted that it's rolling off at the end of the year. So presumably, they're either going to go a la carte, we're going to cut some sort of deal with them that explicitly incorporates C band in the way some of your peers have? No. In your view, does it matter which way it ultimately goes? Should investors really care?

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. That will make sense. You bought 11,500 towers from Verizon back in 2015. So those sites make up a good chunk of the Verizon sites you host on your portfolio today. As part of that deal, if I recall, Verizon got some meaningful capacity rights. I think it was 30,000 square inches of the windward surface area for tower. Recognizing that you probably can't get too into the weeds, are those capacity rights still out there and likely to influence the degree to what you can monetize Verizon C band deployments on those towers?

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. Okay. That's helpful. You also inked an MLA with AT&T that it was 1.5 years or 2 years ago. Can you share if C band was contemplated in that deal or if it's likely to influence the cadence at which AT&T C band activity gets recognized in the P&L, even it wasn't C band specifically?

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. Okay. Fair enough. And to kind of round things out from a carrier specific perspective at least. Obviously, Verizon, AT&T took down the most C band, but T-Mobile bought some, too. Again, kind of same idea, is it reasonable to think that because the T-Mobile deal was signed. so recently, it probably contemplated C band. So there isn't -- that we shouldn't think about there being upside potential from that arrangement? 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 12, 2021 / 6:00PM, AMT.N - American Tower Corp at Moffettnathanson Media & Communications Summit (Virtual)

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. Okay. Makes sense. Now kind of more broadly, as it relates to C band, there's some conflicting opinion regarding the propagation attributes of the band. And how workable or unworkable it may be in some less densely populated areas, in particular. What have your engineering folks concluded regarding how pervasive C band is likely to be deployed over time?

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. That makes sense. Yes, C band is kind of 1 leg of the domestic outlook for the coming years. Another exciting part is DISH. National greenfield network deployment is kind of the dream of all tower owners. No, you obviously can't talk about the exact terms of DISH MLA that you signed, It seems like the dollars that DISH is committed to are pretty significant. So I guess kind of at a high level, can you share any thoughts regarding whether there's likely to be upside to the MLA if DISH is successful in the marketplace? It ends up deploying a network with parallels and majors in terms of number of sites. Kind of -- or say it differently, how forward-looking was this deal and kind of contemplating that for them? 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 12, 2021 / 6:00PM, AMT.N - American Tower Corp at Moffettnathanson Media & Communications Summit (Virtual)

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. Okay. That's good. Let's flip over to Telxius. That's going to -- when that deal closes, it's going to substantially increase your exposure to Europe? Yes. I think one of the more interesting aspects of that opportunity in Germany, at least is Drillisch. An MVNO that's looking for some assets in the ground. When I think about the German tower market, we have Vantage Towers, an affiliate of Vodafone just came public, they're looking to drive incremental lease in that market. DTS Towers that they're trying to commercialize and operate a way to drive incremental revenue. Can you talk a bit about why you feel the Telxius portfolio is well positioned to capitalize on that growth lever in the context of these other tower and looped up being assets available for third-party lease up?

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. Okay. That's a terrific overview. Obviously, lease terms overseas tend to be different than what we have or accustomed to in the U.S. Large share of the Telxius sites are rooftops as opposed to ground-based towers. Talk a little bit about how these rooftop sites, as far as the Telxius deal, may be different from what we're used to and whether there are any contractual or other constraints, say the end limitations or whatnot on leasing those up the way that you would a ground-based tower?

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. Okay. Yes. I mean, sort of highlight the idea that so much of the value of these assets is not the physical asset, but the way is leases are structured.

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : At sort of a different angle. When we think about rooftops, I'll oftentimes get the question or a comment saying, what's to prevent a carrier from simply putting a site on the building next door? So how would you characterize the, call it, the moat or the exclusivity of rooftops relative to ground-based towers?

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. If I think about the American Tower playbook historically, it's oftentimes been to establish a presence in the market and then (inaudible) over time, whether through M&A or organic activity. There are a lot of DTS sites that you've committed to as part of the Telxius deal. How are you thinking about the potential for follow-on M&A in those markets? Was that an important component of the thinking behind the deal?

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. And since you mentioned CDPQ, maybe we'll talk about that for a second. You sold a 30% stake in ATC Europe to them a week ago or lease announced a deal. Europe is the only market where you deliberately sold minority interest over time, first with PGGM and now with CDPQ. What did you see as the advantage of bringing in a partner in this case? I mean you're not wanting for capital.

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. Okay. Well, since we're talking about Europe, yes, I thought it was interesting to see Cellnex enter into a sale-leaseback in Poland that involved active network components. I'm not quite sure how to wrap my head around, that sort of arrangement. But I'm sure it's something that the AMT team has contemplated. So would a deal like that, that included network infrastructure like antennas and radios, in addition to the traditional passive component, would that potentially be of interest you guys? Or is that kind of a bridge too far in terms of what you find the feeling?

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. Let's talk about your long-term outlook and how edge computing might fit into that. In the guidance you laid out with your Q4 call, I think I think Tom and Rod noted that it doesn't really incorporate platform expansion initiatives like edge computing. So that could be potential upside to the numbers. And maybe just my interpretation, but it seems like on recent calls, the team has been -- they sounded more confident that there's something on the horizon that relates to edge computing than they used to be. So I guess kind of in broad strokes, how should I -- how should we be thinking about the potential upside in edge computing over time? And to what degree could it potentially move numbers if the stars were to align?

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. That's great. As I think about your targeted long-term AFFO growth goal, it seems like new builds are an important part of that. I think you're targeting something like 40,000 towers over the next 5 years, which is, I think, 2.5x what you've done over the last 5. So a material step up. Talk about that a bit. And should we think about the geographic mix in terms of where you're building these towers is similar to where you've been building them recently with a lot of them in India, maybe Africa thereafter? And maybe touch on -- because I've read about it recently, the Philippines. I think you have a deal there. So to what degree does that play into it? 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 12, 2021 / 6:00PM, AMT.N - American Tower Corp at Moffettnathanson Media & Communications Summit (Virtual)

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. We'll probably have time for a couple more questions before our time is up. So I want to hit on Latin America. There's going to be a little bit of a shift to the tower landscape there once AmTrica M=vil kind of separates its towers outside of Mexico. I guess, do you have any initial thoughts regarding whether that separation is going to matter for your business or not? For example, their proximity to your sites or their propensity to at least to third parties or -- and the suitability for co-location, things like that?

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. Okay. That makes sense. Yes. I thought in the minute we have left, maybe we closed with kind of a touchy feeling, big picture question. Igor, I think you spend your -- almost your entire professional with American Towers. You've seen a lot. How are you feeling about the position of the business today? How would you describe the pulse of the organization and the opportunities that you see today versus years past?

Question: Nicholas Ralph Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Well, that's a terrific note on which to close. Igor, again, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today, but that was a great discussion.