Crown Castle Inc at KeyBanc Technology Forum Transcript

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

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Sunit, you've been in the industry for a long time. I think new to Crown Castle, but been in the industry a long time. Maybe for people that don't know you, why don't you share your background and overall what different experiences you bring to the table for Crown?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Great. You've been with Crown for six months. What are your initial impressions? What are the opportunities? What are the challenges that you face? Yes, go into that for us. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. AUGUST 12, 2025 / 3:00PM, CCI.N - Crown Castle Inc at KeyBanc Technology Forum

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : and obviously a lot of industry experience that you bring to the table. What characteristics or skill sets do you bring that you think are particularly unique, and how do you think about sort of your key priorities over the next year or couple years into the role?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : While you're new to Crown, you actually have a new executive coming in, new CEO, Christian Hildenbrand, just announced a week or two ago, expected to join in September. Can you tell us more about Christian, what attracted you guys to him, or vice versa, and what experiences he brings to the table?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Okay, so relative to sort of the strategic priorities you guys outlined before, no real change that you see coming.

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : So talk to us about the divestiture. You guys have sort of six to nine months till you expect that transaction to close. What needs to happen between now and then to get the transaction closed? And then maybe internally, what are you really focused on from an efficiency perspective?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Remind us sort of where and the timing around those type of approvals?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Any long polls in the tent in terms of state approvals and utility commission approvals? California usually is challenging for a lot of M&A.

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Okay. Carve-out financials, those need to be filed, I think, at some point in time. When would you expect those?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Okay. And just you expect to generate about $8.5 billion from the transaction. I don't think there's any tax involved -- tax payment involved with the transaction. Yes. Remind us what you expect to do with the proceeds.

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Okay. Let's shift to the business a little bit, sort of the core tower business. You guys reported earnings a couple weeks ago. You raised guidance for tower leasing from $110 million at the midpoint to $115 million. What are you seeing right now in terms of activity from the carriers that you didn't necessarily expect to start the year?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : How do you feel about cycle times overall and looking forward? Is that part of the efficiency work that you think you can do that could be beneficial?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Okay. As we take a step back and look at changes that came from the One Big Beautiful Bill, bonus depreciation should certainly help your customers from a tax standpoint. There's also spectrum that is expected to be auctioned. How do you think of that as potential drivers for your business over the next couple of years?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : How do you see it sort of playing out from a customer activity perspective between now and sort of the new spectrum? I think absent spectrum, customers can sort of densify or they can add equipment from a spectral efficiency standpoint. How do you see that playing out over the next couple of years?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Got it. one of the interesting aspects and differences between the sort of Big Three towers has been their interest or lack thereof in master lease agreements with their customers, right? I think American Tower has been on one side really trying to pursue holistic agreements with their customer. SBA generally on the other side pursues more a la carte leasing structure. I think you guys would -- I'd characterize you more in the middle. What's your philosophy in terms of transacting with customers under those type of long-term agreements?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : If we look at your financial straight-line revenue, I think it's expected to go negative, which means a lot of those deals are longer term in nature, right? They're sort of towards the end of their term. How do you think about renewals on those and overall timing there?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Okay. Obviously, a big headwind for the industry this year and over the last several years has been consolidation-related churns, specifically Sprint churn for you guys in this year's numbers. As we take a step back and sort of work our way through the Sprint churn this year, how do you think of sort of the long-term sustainable churn rate? Talk about US cellular, any sort of exposure there as T-Mobile has now closed that transaction too.

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Okay. As we look at sort of your organic growth rate, again, excluding Sprint churn, how do you think about sort of that long-term sustainable growth algorithm? I think Crown has talked about it in the past getting to like a 5% growth rate plus on the net side, American Towers there. How do you think about getting back to that level of organic growth?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : In February. It's interesting that you mentioned how stable the business is. I think you come from a couple companies which might not be as stable. What is your philosophy around maybe issuing some sort of longer-term guidance? Is that something you guys are looking to do? Is that something that's not interesting to you? What's your overall philosophy on a long-term outlook?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Okay, got you. As part of the transaction of the fiber divestiture, small-cell divestiture, a lot of investors are really focused on really operating efficiency, sort of sunk corporate costs that you might have, and anything that you can do on the tower side to become more operating efficient. There's numbers that you have put out we can't quite put our finger on exactly what that cost structure looks like. Can you help us understand sort of what you're going to do to implement some of those cost savings? And any way to sort of quantify it would be super helpful. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. AUGUST 12, 2025 / 3:00PM, CCI.N - Crown Castle Inc at KeyBanc Technology Forum

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : So if we were sort of to outline, is it sort of an even split between running one business, systems and platforms, and the other item that you mentioned sort of split evenly between the costs you think you can take out of the business?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Got it. One of the things that I tell investors as I think about sort of Crown's long-term AFFO per share growth algorithm is sort of, I think the company can get back to a 5% AFFO per share growth rate or organic revenue growth rate. I think the cost efficiencies could be like 1 point or 2 on top of that for EBITDA growth of 6 or 7. And then you got a buyback, right? You got a buyback that could be, depends on the level of the stock, 2 points of AFFO per share growth. And overall, it seems like the business can produce a high single, low double-digit AFFO per share growth pretty sustainably. What are your thoughts around sort of that framework for a long-term growth algorithm?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Speaking of interest rates, I think post-transaction you expect to be at a 6 to 6.5 times net debt leverage ratio. Why is that the right sort of range? How did you guys come to that? And how do you expect to run the business from a leverage perspective?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Got it. I think with that, we're just about out of time. So Sunit, thank you very much for being here. We appreciate your time.