“The first quarter marked another strong quarter of execution as we exceeded the high end of our guidance for site rental revenues, site rental gross margin, Adjusted EBITDA and AFFO,” stated Dan Schlanger, Crown Castle’s Chief Financial Officer. “Driven by the strong results from the first quarter and expected continued healthy leasing activity across both towers and small cells, we are increasing our full year 2017 Outlook. We believe the strength of our business, our flexible capital structure and our low cost of capital position us to continue to deliver consistent growth while allowing us to pursue attractive growth opportunities that we believe will drive long-term growth in dividends per share.”
RESULTS FOR THE QUARTER, CCI
The table below sets forth select financial results for the three month period ended March 31, 2017.
| (in millions) | Actual | Midpoint
Q1 2017 Outlook(b) |
Actual
Compared to Outlook |
|||
| Q1 2017 | Q1 2016 | Change | % Change | |||
| Site rental revenues | $857 | $799 | +$58 | 7% | $854 | +$3 |
| Site rental gross margin | $592 | $547 | +$45 | 8% | $589 | +$3 |
| Net income (loss) | $119 | $48 | +$71 | 148% | $98 | +$21 |
| Adjusted EBITDA(a) | $581 | $539 | +$42 | 8% | $578 | +$3 |
| AFFO(a) | $450 | $395 | +$55 | 14% | $443 | +$7 |
| Weighted-average common shares outstanding – diluted | 362 | 335 | +27 | 8% | 361 | +1 |
“Our tower business continues to see steady levels of activity in the short term. Over the longer term, we believe there is an extended runway of growth driven by positive industry developments, including the deployment of FirstNet and spectrum from the recently completed incentive auction,” Jay Brown, Crown Castle’s Chief Executive Officer said.
“In our small cells business, our contracted pipeline has reached record levels, with nearly 25,000 nodes expected to be installed over the next 18 to 24 months, reflecting the confidence our customers have in our ability to assist in deploying their wireless networks. Once completed, this pipeline will double the number of small cell nodes we have installed to date,” he said. To prepare for this anticipated level of activity, Crown continued to invest in assets supporting their small cell deployments, such as their recently announced agreement to acquire Wilcon, as well as their node installation capabilities, including the hiring of additional employees.
“As we scale our organization to increase production toward our goal of 10,000 nodes per year,” Brown said, “we will incur additional costs that have been reflected in our full year 2017 Outlook. We believe these investments will allow us to extend our position as a leading provider of wireless infrastructure while generating attractive returns on our investments and delivering sustained growth in dividends per share,” he said.
April 25, 2017
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