Crown Castle Results Welcomed on Wall Street

Despite reporting mixed financial results for the fourth quarter on Wednesday, most Wall Street analysts were cautiously upbeat about Crown Castle International’s performance. As Zacks noted yesterday, Crown’s “top line beats the Zacks Consensus Estimate but the bottom line lagged the same.”

The Houston-based company reported earnings per share of $1.11, “a penny short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate. However, GAAP net income fell roughly 5.1% year over year to $130.1 million. Net revenue in the quarter increased 2.2% year over year to $945.8 million, outpacing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $932 million.” Continue Reading

Jay Brown Set To Become Crown Castle’s President, CEO June 1

After the stock market closed yesterday, Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE: CCI) reported results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2015, and announced that the Board of Directors has approved a succession plan for its Chief Executive Officer. The Houston-based tower company said Jay Brown, 43, currently Crown Castle’s Chief Financial Officer, will become Crown Castle’s President and Chief Executive Officer effective June 1. Ben Moreland, currently Crown Castle’s President and Chief Executive Officer, will remain in an executive position as Executive Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors. Continue Reading

Sprint Won’t ‘Rip and Replace’ Towers

After releasing fiscal third quarter results yesterday, Sprint management acknowledged it has no plans to undo – or “rip and replace” as it is being called — its extensive network building that began in earnest in 2013. But it was also no surprise that the company is focused on a strategy to find less expensive alternatives to network improvements. The company said it would explore new, lower cost possibilities as current lease contracts unwind. Most master lease agreements with American Tower Corp., Crown Castle and SBA Communications continue through 2016. Continue Reading

Sprint’s Future Growth Likely to Focus On Small Cells, Not Towers

While the East Coast continues to shovel out of an historic snow storm, Wall Street and the Tower Industry will be looking for Sprint to shovel out of its own special storm that hit it, and subsequently tower companies, when San Francisco-based tech news publisher Re/code printed a January 15 article that doomed Spring’s future relationship with towers companies. According to Re/code, Sprint, intended to move its “radio equipment” off commercial towers owned chiefly by American Tower Co., Crown Castle and SBA Communications and reaffix to “government-owned towers” as part of a $1 billion cost-cutting measure. Industry eyebrows immediately raised about how logical that scheme was, but the damage was done. (Sprint was never directly quoted in the Re/code article but a Sprint spokesman did tell Inside Towers “we are not commenting” on the article.) Sprint and tower company shares spent the ensuing week auguring into the earth. Sprint quickly moved up the date to release its third fiscal quarter results (7:30 am ET this morning) and its management team hosts a conference call an hour later. It’s an opportunity for the nation’s fourth largest carrier to right its ship. Continue Reading

Analyst: Tower Credit Has Been ‘Well Received’

In his latest Telecom Newsletter for investors, EvercoreISI telecom analyst Jonathan Schildkraut late Friday reported his team had taken a closer look at recent debt transactions in the towers space. “Against a backdrop of potentially rising interest rates, we find two tower debt transactions that were well received by the credit markets. American Tower Company raised $1.25B of senior unsecured notes and saw favorable interest rates,” wrote Schildkraut. “Additionally, Crown Castle International completed a new $5.5B senior unsecured credit facility to replace its existing senior secured credit facility. With the big transition to unsecured debt, Moody’s upgraded Crown Castle’s senior unsecured credit rating two notches, from Ba3 to Ba1. We view the American Tower’s pricing and Crown Castle’s upgrade as confirmation that the debt markets remain favorable for tower company credit.” Continue Reading

Tower Industry Plans, Prepares for Mid-Atlantic Snowstorm

WASHINGTON, DC — By midday yesterday, an estimated 80 million Americans along the mid-Atlantic coast from Virginia to New York were scrambling to prepare for National Weather Service-forecasted storm expected to last 36 hours over Friday and Saturday. It could dump two feet or more of snow and bring single-digit temperatures and howling winds. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, who was already rattled by the Wednesday evening snow “dusting” that covered city streets with an inch of ice causing hundreds of accidents, may have gotten ahead of herself by noon when she told NPR the coming snow was already “an historic storm” as her planners prepared the city. Even local electric company PEPCO robo-called customers to warn them to “prepare for the storm, report outages and stay clear of downed wires and stay clear of working repair crews.”  Continue Reading

Sweetwater, FL Residents Thrilled Over Proposed 130’ Tower

It’s not unusual for neighbors near the site of a proposed tower to get organized and get vocal about the possibility of a new structure being built near their homes. But it is a rare day when all the gusto is IN SUPPORT of erecting a 130-foot tower. “We are thrilled that the neighbors are supporting this,” said Attorney Lauralee Westine, who is representing tower builder Florida Tower Partners LLC.  In fact, she told the Orlando Sentinel it is “a unique situation” that residents of Sweetwater support the proposal.

Just last month Inside Towers told you about another nearby tower installed at First Baptist Church of Sweetwater that greatly improved what was very poor or nonexistent wireless coverage. So this additional structure is expected to ratchet up coverage in a neighborhood of million-dollar homes, the type of neighborhood where poor cell reception is just not acceptable. But first the Seminole County Board of Adjustment has to approve the measure at its January 25 meeting. Continue Reading