Crown Castle Inc Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Question: Simon Flannery - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Thank you so much and let me add my best wishes down to your future endeavors. Great working with you, Steven. Thank you. Thanks for all the color. Very helpful. In the past, the company has expressed interest in developed market opportunities for macro towers. I guess, years ago you had an investment in Australia, but is that off the table now? Are you pretty much locked into the US, or might you be interested in something in Europe if the right opportunity arose? And then down back to the organic growth, as we go forward here and get past a lot of these one-time items like Sprint churn, if we take a mid-single digit organic growth number, is it fair to say that the AFFO per share growth should be in that mid-to-high single digits and that the dividend per share should also be in that sort of trajectory on a kind of medium-term basis?

Question: Simon Flannery - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Great. Thank you so much.

Question: Michael Rowlands - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Thanks and good afternoon. I also want to express my thanks and best wishes to Dan. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 13, 2025 / 9:00PM, CCI.N - Q4 2024 Crown Castle Inc Earnings Call

Question: Michael Rowlands - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : And just a few questions. So first, it seems appropriate as you're focusing now on domestic towers to ask a bit about the leasing activity that you're seeing within that $110 million for 2025. And if you could share if there's any differences whether it's in the shaping of that over the course of the year in terms of where it may be coming from? I think you mentioned densification earlier and just curious the types of activity that you're seeing this year that may differ from last year. And then secondly, on capital allocation, as you look at managing the fiber business as a discontinued operation through close, can you give us a sense of what the base case assumption is, for how much free cash flow that business could contribute or consume for Crown Castle? Thanks.

Question: Michael Rowlands - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : It does.

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James & Associates - Analyst : Thanks, everybody. Yeah, Dan, I'll echo that too. Enjoyed working with you and glad you were there to help get everybody over the finish line here.

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James & Associates - Analyst : Yeah. And, yeah, obviously, the finish line looks really similar to what we were thinking. One aspect was, were you thinking at all of keeping small cells or even a stake of small cells because there is some excitement about densification and, or was it just going to be too complicated to try and keep a stake in the small cell?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James & Associates - Analyst : Okay. And then it talks about the deal. We did see from ZAO that they're saying the fiber side is $4.25 billion, implying that the small cell is $4.25 billion. Is it one transaction with two parties? Is it separate transactions? And how should we think about kind of the long poles in the tent to getting the approval process?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James & Associates - Analyst : Okay. Well, and last one for me. Is the leverage you talk about targeting 6.0, 6.5? Have you gotten any confirmation from the rate agencies that they do view that as investment grade zone, particularly as they also might consider the final purchase options? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 13, 2025 / 9:00PM, CCI.N - Q4 2024 Crown Castle Inc Earnings Call

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James & Associates - Analyst : Okay, thanks guys. And again, I'm glad you reached the finish line. And Dan, glad you were there to get it done and best wishes.

Question: Brendan Lynch - Barclays PLC - Analyst : Great, thank you for taking my questions. Maybe you could talk a little bit about the time frame for the $3 billion of repurchases and your thought process around repurchases versus other options such as a special dividend?

Question: Brendan Lynch - Barclays PLC - Analyst : Great, thank you. That's helpful. And maybe just a clarification question on the Sprint churn beyond 2025, Steve, you mentioned that there was some lingering components beyond the $205 million this year. You just, clarify how we should think about that.

Question: Brendan Lynch - Barclays PLC - Analyst : Great, that's helpful. Thank you very much and then it's been a pleasure working with you. All the best going forward with whatever comes next.

Question: Brendan Lynch - Barclays PLC - Analyst : Thank you.

Question: Nick Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Hey guys, and first off, Dan, again, thank you for all the time and insights you've shared with us over the years and best of luck in whatever you choose to do next. Thank you very much. Now Steven, you talked about the opportunity to improve market shares, one of your strategic priorities going forward. I think a lot of folks think of this business on a tower-by-tower basis. You're kind of either there or you're not, and there tends not to be a lot of competing towers within a relevant radii. So through that lens, how are you thinking about the opportunity to boost the share of cell sites you host?

Question: Nick Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay, that that's helpful. Thank you, Steven. Can I ask one about unallocated SG&A as well, in the slide where you kind of bridge to the estimated AFFO at transaction close, you seem to assume that a lot of the unallocated SG&A eventually goes away. I guess, can you help to mention how much of that you think you can eventually get rid of and over what sort of time frame?

Question: Nick Del Deo - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay.

Question: James Schneider - The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. - Analyst : Thanks for taking my question and thanks to you, Dan, and best wishes on your future endeavors. Maybe just -- maybe, would love to see if you could talk a little bit about your organic growth strategy for towers in the US business for a minute and then talk about your intention to sort of diversify or go more aggressively against opportunities in rural areas where maybe under next today, maybe talk about how aggressively to your earlier reactor you might want to go after the tower build opportunity. And then, maybe in the second part of the question the $150 million to $200 million and go forward, how do you think about that, beyond this year? You've mentioned land, but how do you think about how that splits out over time?

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Great, thanks for taking the question, Steven. I was hoping you could talk about some of the operational, initiatives that you might do and from a financial standpoint, where do you think something like EBITDA of margins can go over the long term? And I ask because one of your peers is also sort of doing, an exercise to try to drive out costs in the business, but try -- and we can see where your EBITDA margin is this year on the tower business. So where do you think it goes long term? Thanks.

Question: Brandon Nispel - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. - Analyst : Thanks for taking the question.

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Group AG - Analyst : Great, thank you. Just a couple of quick follow-ups. I'm assuming that there isn't any tax consequences with the sale but just to confirm that and maybe just going back to the AFFO bridge this year includes maybe a bit of one-time items you mentioned, the $40 million legal spend. Anything else that you could quantify in terms of the stranded cost? And looking at that slide 7 again, the $250 million to $370 million of growth is a bit of a wide range. What's that dependent on and if you could provide a rough split of revenue growth versus SG&A adjustments will be great. Thank you.

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Group AG - Analyst : Okay. Thank you.