American Tower Corp at NAREIT REITweek: Investor Conference Transcript

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

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : With new hands on the helm. I think a natural question, actually new hands on the helm of all three public tower stocks as far as CEO interesting times. What's going to change in the direction, the strategy or execution?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : So the data center company you bought a couple of years ago?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : Makes sense, new or newish besides you up on the stage. Since last NAREIT, there was the announcement in early January. You guys are out with us in Deer Valley at one of our winter Summit. So we had some of that, I think, you announced in early January, the sale of 100% of the India business, why sell it? What lessons did you learn?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : As far as proceeds, some of it goes back to that maybe that fourth pillar kind of the balance sheet?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : You've touched on it a couple of times with CoreSite. You bought a data center company about 2.5 years ago. What are trends are you seeing there what lessons have you learned so far.

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : Obviously, those made public data center companies in the world anymore because you bought one and that some of them going private. The question still circulates out there of when does the Edge about AI a data centers is still early. But people were betting on it AI towers feels a little further away, but we're all trying to figure out. Will they come what we'll see and when?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : There's 50 people or they all have different definitions.

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : You sold the Mexican fiber business. Give us your view on fiber, small cells kind of in general in the US and internationally then? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. JUNE 05, 2024 / 12:45PM, AMT.N - American Tower Corp at NAREIT REITweek: Investor Conference

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : It's also pretty capital-intensive business it seems?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : So as you allocate capital is one of your pillars is kind of like rather elevated status?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : Newer since last REIT, no new in the last week, we had an announcement that US Cellular was going to propose to sell its wireless operations and some of their spectrum to team up. We've all lived through your got most of the Sprint churn behind you, thankfully. But we lived through that T-Mobile buying Sprint was it affected the tower industry turning up ballpark, maybe 35,000 sites at Sprint help us frame what a T-Mobile US Cellular merger would look like if approved in the current structure to you guys?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : And the playbook for T-Mobile is typically taken -- they'll say three to four years. They might do it in one to two, but it is a process to train. You've got to move all the customers over from the [USM] network over to a T-Mobile network, you don't want the customer experience to be bad at the carrier?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : Right, good.

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : Certainly much less than what Sprint was?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : On your earnings calls over the last couple quarters. Even you suggested that you're seeing some green shoots that the services business should ramp up possibly in the second half of the year? Services is not the leasing part it's the other things that happened at a tower, help us understand what you're seeing and why you're seeing in?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : That's quarter ended.

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : A lot of discussion over the 25-years, I've been following towers, I would call it the left-field technology question, but what's going to make towers go away and the laws of physics kind of suggest maybe nothing but the most recent one is satellite to smartphone, sometimes called director device. Talk a little bit about what you see that, so solving for you have an investment in ASTS as well, which is one of the companies trying to do some of that?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : So I think I was the one that coined the phrase best business ever the US tower business a decades ago. And but they've not been the best stocks ever. I've been through a rough patch interest rates clearly are affecting your stock. Interest rates have been stubbornly higher for longer. Help us understand how you navigate that, but also should the market be as highly inverse correlated your stock to interest rates?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : What's interesting, call it an anomaly, which we're using satellite land all the time. We're one of the interesting anomalies to me it seems is, in this interest rate environment, private multiples are staying well above public multiples. Are you seeing that and if so, why is that happening?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : So it feels like maybe more public multiples can come up towards private as opposed to privates having to come down or maybe? (multiple speakers)

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : Yeah dividends very important to a lot of investors here and listening on the webcast. Talk to us a little bit about the dividend policy at American Tower and where you see it going forward?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : The other markets out there. So if we think of international markets, obviously India had way too many carriers and it consolidated pretty quick, the health of the carriers. So important to make the towers, the best business ever, your tenants have to be healthy, a lot of people look at Nigeria and go, "wow, there's some stuff going on there". Help us understand what you're seeing in Nigeria, how do you navigate that? How do your customers navigate that?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : In Brazil, we've had carrier consolidation there as well going from four operators to three operators, which seems like kind of idea of three plus maybe. Where are we at as far as the churn with oil getting kind of split up and what does that do to the leasing activity of the other three?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : And I think one of the nice things about the tower business tied to the health of wireless is secular growth people are consuming, on these devices that we find so critical, they're not really cyclical.

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : So this year, first and NAREIT, what closing message would you want to tell re-investors that are in the room and listening remotely about you as the new CEO of American Tower?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James - Analyst : Great. Thanks so much.