Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE: CCI) yesterday reported results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2021 and increased its full year 2021 Outlook. Capital expenditures during the quarter were $302 million, comprising $17 million of sustaining capital expenditures and $285 million of discretionary capital expenditures. Discretionary capital expenditures during the quarter primarily included approximately $225 million attributable to Fiber and approximately $49 million attributable to towers.
“We are excited about the increasing level of activity we see in our business as our customers have begun to deploy 5G at scale,” stated Dan Schlanger, Crown Castle’s Chief Financial Officer.
Highlights From the earnings report:
- Site rental revenues. Site rental revenues grew 5 percent, or $59 million, from first quarter 2020 to first quarter 2021, inclusive of approximately $82 million in Organic Contribution to Site Rental Revenues and a $24 million decrease in straight-lined revenues. The $82 million in Organic Contribution to Site Rental Revenues represents approximately 6.3 percent growth, comprised of approximately 9.4% growth from new leasing activity and contracted tenant escalations, net of approximately 3.1% from tenant non-renewals.
- Net income. Net income for the first quarter 2021 was $121 million compared to $185 million for the first quarter 2020 and was impacted by a $143 million loss on the retirement of long-term obligations due to first quarter 2021 refinancing activities.
- AFFO per share. AFFO per share for the first quarter 2021 was $1.71, representing 20 percent growth when compared to $1.42 for the first quarter 2020.
- Common stock dividend. During the quarter, Crown Castle paid common stock dividends of approximately $588 million in the aggregate, or $1.33 per common share, an increase of approximately 11 percent on a per share basis compared to the same period a year ago.
- Financing Activities. During the quarter, Crown Castle issued $3.25 billion in aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured notes with a combination of 5-year, 10-year and 20-year maturities, resulting in a weighted average maturity and coupon of 12 years and approximately 2.1 percent, respectively. Net proceeds from the offering were used to redeem all of the outstanding 5.25 percent Senior Notes, repay a portion of outstanding borrowings under the 2016 Term Loan A, and repay a portion of the outstanding commercial paper notes at their maturity date.
“We believe we are well positioned to support our growing number of customers by providing a comprehensive set of solutions across towers, small cells and fiber solutions,” Schlanger said, “which are all necessary to build out 5G wireless networks. Looking forward, we believe we are in a great position to deliver on our long-term annual dividend growth target of 7 percent to 8 percent while at the same time making significant investments in our business that we believe will generate attractive long-term returns and support future growth. To help fund that growth, we were able to opportunistically access the bond market during the first quarter to refinance upcoming maturities, extending our maturity profile and reducing our overall cost of capital. We continue to take steps to complement our compelling total return opportunity with a lower risk profile, and we expect to have sufficient capacity to once again fund our discretionary investments this year with free cash flow and incremental borrowings.”
Crown Castle has scheduled a conference call for today, Thursday, April 22, at 10:30 A.M. Eastern time to discuss its first quarter 2021 results. The conference call may be accessed by dialing 800-347-6311 and asking for the Crown Castle call (access code 7566143) at least 30 minutes prior to the start time. The conference call may also be accessed live over the Internet at investor.crowncastle.com.
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