Crown Castle Inc (CCI) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Q1 2025 Crown Castle earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Kris Hinson Henson, Vice President of Corporate Finance and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

大家好，歡迎參加 2025 年第一季 Crown Castle 收益電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，此事件正在被記錄。現在，我想將會議交給公司財務副總裁兼財務主管克里斯·欣森·漢森先生。請繼續。

Thank you, Darcy, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today as we discuss our first quarter 2025 results. With me on the call this afternoon are Dan Schlanger, Crown Castle's Interim President and Chief Executive Officer; and Sunit Patel, Crown Castle's Chief Financial Officer. Today, the discussion, we have posted supplemental materials in the Investors section of our website at crowncastle.com that will be referenced throughout the call.

謝謝你，達西，大家下午好。感謝您今天加入我們，一起討論 2025 年第一季的業績。今天下午與我一起參加電話會議的還有 Crown Castle 的臨時總裁兼執行長 Dan Schlanger 和 Crown Castle 的財務長 Sunit Patel。今天的討論中，我們在我們的網站 crowncastle.com 的投資者部分發布了補充資料，將在整個電話會議中參考。

This conference call will contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions and actual results may vary materially from those expected. Information about potential factors which could affect our results is available in the press release and the Risk Factors sections of the company's SEC filings. Our statements are made as of today, April 30, 2025, and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

本次電話會議將包含前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受某些風險、不確定性和假設的影響，實際結果可能與預期結果有重大差異。有關可能影響我們業績的潛在因素的資訊可在新聞稿和公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件的「風險因素」部分中找到。我們的聲明截至今天（2025 年 4 月 30 日）做出，我們不承擔更新任何前瞻性聲明的義務。

In addition, today's call includes discussions of certain non-GAAP financial measures. Tables reconciling these non-GAAP financial measures are available in the supplemental information package in the Investors section of the company's website at crowncastle.com.

此外，今天的電話會議還討論了某些非公認會計準則財務指標。調整這些非 GAAP 財務指標的表格可在公司網站 crowncastle.com 的投資者部分的補充資訊包中找到。

With that, let me turn the call over to Dan.

說完這些，讓我把電話轉給丹。

Thanks, Kris, and good afternoon, everyone. Before I begin, I'd like to thank the Board for placing its confidence in me to lead the company during this interim period as they work to identify the next CEO. I'm grateful to have this opportunity, and I'm excited we're on a path to becoming a pure-play US tower company. I believe the decision to sell our fiber segment positions each of our tower, small cell and fiber solutions businesses to be highly successful going forward, while unlocking substantial value in our tower business.

謝謝，克里斯，大家下午好。在我開始之前，我要感謝董事會對我的信任，讓我在他們正在尋找下一任執行長的過渡期間領導公司。我很感激能有這個機會，我很高興我們正走在成為一家純粹的美國塔式公司的道路上。我相信出售光纖部門的決定將使我們的塔、小型基地台和光纖解決方案業務在未來取得巨大成功，同時釋放我們塔業務的巨大價值。

To help realize that value. While in this role, my top priorities are facilitating the successful and efficient close of the small cell and fiber solutions sale delivering on the company's financial and operating objectives for 2025 and positioning the tower business to maximize value for shareholders on a stand-alone basis. We are off to a good start by delivering strong first quarter results, giving us confidence in our full year 2025 outlook.

幫助實現這一價值。在擔任此職務期間，我的首要任務是促進小型基地台和光纖解決方案銷售的成功和高效完成，實現公司 2025 年的財務和營運目標，並使塔業務定位為獨立股東最大化價值。我們第一季取得了強勁的業績，這是一個良好的開端，讓我們對 2025 年全年前景充滿信心。

Additionally, although we are in the early phases, -- we are making good progress towards separating our fiber solutions and small cell businesses so that we can close the sale in the first half of 2026. Going forward, I believe we have a unique value creation opportunity as the only public pure-play tower company focused exclusively on the US, which we continue to believe is the best market in the world for tower ownership.

此外，儘管我們還處於早期階段，但我們在分離光纖解決方案和小型基地台業務方面取得了良好進展，以便我們能夠在 2026 年上半年完成出售。展望未來，我相信，作為唯一一家專注於美國的上市純鐵塔公司，我們擁有獨特的價值創造機會，我們仍然相信美國是世界上鐵塔所有權的最佳市場。

Since the early stages of 5G network deployment in 2020 Mobile data demand in the US has grown substantially. To maintain network capacity and quality, our customers have invested over $35 billion annually in their networks, resulting in more than 5% average annual organic growth in our tower business from 2020 to 2024.

自2020年5G網路部署初期以來，美國的行動數據需求大幅成長。為了保持網路容量和質量，我們的客戶每年在其網路上投資超過 350 億美元，從而導致我們的塔業務在 2020 年至 2024 年期間年均有機增長率超過 5%。

Looking forward, we believe the continued growth in data demand will drive durable growth in our business. As you can see on page 4 of our earnings materials, history demonstrates just how durable US tower demand growth has been across market cycles and macroeconomic conditions. Over the past two decades, the US has experienced two recessions, and 10-year treasury yields are fluctuated by almost 4%, while cash site rental revenues in our tower business have grown consistently.

展望未來，我們相信數據需求的持續成長將推動我們業務的持久成長。正如您在我們的收益資料第 4 頁所看到的，歷史證明了美國塔需求成長在市場週期和宏觀經濟條件下的持久性。過去二十年，美國經歷了兩次經濟衰退，10年期公債殖利率波動近4%，而我們鐵塔業務的現金站址租金收入卻持續成長。

Further underscoring the strength of the US tower business model and the resiliency of the demand for our assets, tariff policies do not impact our full year 2025 outlook. In addition to benefiting from the durable and healthy market dynamics, we enjoy in the US. We believe that being a pure-play tower company will allow us to unlike value by focusing on customer service, operational excellence and improved profitability.

進一步強調了美國塔業務模式的實力和對我們資產的需求的彈性，關稅政策不會影響我們對 2025 年全年的展望。除了受益於持久而健康的市場動態之外，我們還享受著美國的樂趣。我們相信，作為一家純粹的塔式公司，我們將能夠透過專注於客戶服務、卓越營運和提高獲利能力來實現不同的價值。

We believe these areas of focus will drive both higher top and bottom line growth by positioning us to win additional revenue opportunities improve operational efficiency and deliver for our customers and shareholders. We are complementing the attractive cash flow profile from our tower -- US tower business with a capital allocation framework that balances predictable return of capital to shareholders with financial flexibility and balance sheet strength. With limited sustaining capital expenditures, variable costs and growth capital required to drive incremental revenues, the tower business generates significant cash flows, giving us flexibility in our capital allocation.

我們相信，這些重點領域將使我們獲得額外的收入機會，提高營運效率，並為我們的客戶和股東提供服務，從而推動更高的營收和利潤成長。我們正在透過資本配置框架來補充我們的塔 - 美國塔業務的有吸引力的現金流狀況，該框架平衡了可預測的股東資本回報與財務靈活性和資產負債表實力。由於持續資本支出、變動成本和推動增量收入所需的成長資本有限，塔業務產生了大量現金流，為我們的資本配置提供了靈活性。

As announced last quarter, we will first look to return capital to our shareholders via a quarterly dividend set in any given year at a rate of about 75% to 80% of anticipated AFFO excluding amortization of prepaid rent. Consistent with this framework, the Board has indicated that it intends to reduce our annualized dividend per share to $4.25 beginning in the second quarter of 2025.

正如上個季度宣布的那樣，我們將首先尋求透過在任何一年設定的季度股息向股東返還資本，股息率約為預期 AFFO 的 75% 至 80%，不包括預付租金的攤銷。根據該框架，董事會表示打算從 2025 年第二季開始將每股年度股息削減至 4.25 美元。

Additionally, after the close of the sale transaction, we expect to spend between $150 million and $250 million of annual capital expenditures net of prepaid rent received. This capital spend primarily includes modifying our towers, purchasing land under our towers and investing in technology and systems that will enhance profitability.

此外，在銷售交易結束後，我們預計扣除收到的預付租金後，每年的資本支出將在 1.5 億美元至 2.5 億美元之間。這項資本支出主要用於改造我們的塔、購買塔下的土地以及投資可提高獲利能力的技術和系統。

Lastly, we expect to repurchase shares. Currently, Crown Castle's Board intends to implement a share repurchase program of approximately $3 billion in conjunction with the close of the sale of our fiber solutions and small cell businesses. To support our capital allocation framework and balance sheet strength, we plan to manage our debt balance to maintain an investment-grade credit rating.

最後，我們預計將回購股票。目前，Crown Castle 董事會打算結合我們的光纖解決方案和小型基地台業務的出售完成實施一項約 30 億美元的股票回購計畫。為了支持我們的資本配置框架和資產負債表實力，我們計劃管理我們的債務餘額以維持投資等級信用評級。

With this in mind, after closing the sale transaction, we expect to use approximately $6 billion of cash proceeds to repay debt. We believe this balance between debt repayment and share repurchases positions us well to drive future value creation.

考慮到這一點，在完成銷售交易後，我們預計將使用約 60 億美元的現金收益來償還債務。我們相信，債務償還和股票回購之間的平衡使我們能夠推動未來的價值創造。

To wrap up, First, we are excited to be on the path to becoming a pure-play tower company, and we are making good progress separating our fiber solutions and small cell businesses, keeping us on track to close the sale in the first half of 2026.

總結一下，首先，我們很高興能夠走上成為純粹的塔式業務公司的道路，我們在分離光纖解決方案和小型基地台業務方面取得了良好的進展，這使我們能夠在 2026 年上半年完成出售。

Second, we are pleased by our strong first quarter results and are confident we can deliver our full year 2025 outlook. And third, we are focused on driving operational improvements while implementing our balanced and disciplined capital allocation framework to enhance shareholder returns over time.

其次，我們對第一季的強勁業績感到滿意，並有信心實現 2025 年全年的願景。第三，我們專注於推動營運改進，同時實施均衡、嚴謹的資本配置框架，以提高股東的長期回報。

Finally, I'd like to welcome Sunit Patel, who started as Chief Financial Officer at the beginning of April. Sunit brings extensive industry and leadership experience. Although he has only been CFO here for a short time, Sunit has already provided great insights that have helped me tremendously in my interim role. It's great to have him on the Crown Castle team.

最後，我要歡迎四月初開始擔任財務長的 Sunit Patel。Sunit 擁有豐富的行業和領導經驗。儘管他只在這裡擔任了很短的時間，但 Sunit 已經提供了很好的見解，對我的臨時職位有很大幫助。很高興他能加入 Crown Castle 團隊。

And with that, I'll turn it over to Sune to walk us through the details of the quarter.

接下來，我將把時間交給 Sune，讓她向我們介紹本季的詳細資訊。

Thanks, Dan, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the warm welcome. I'm excited to be here, and I look forward to working together to deliver for our customers and shareholders. As Dan mentioned, our focus right now is on closing the sale of the fiber business and positioning the tower business to maximize shareholder value on a stand-alone basis as we aim to deliver on our financial and operating objectives for the year.

謝謝，丹，大家下午好。謝謝你們的熱烈歡迎。我很高興來到這裡，並期待著共同努力為我們的客戶和股東提供服務。正如丹所提到的，我們現在的重點是完成光纖業務的出售，並定位塔業務以在獨立基礎上實現股東價值最大化，因為我們的目標是實現今年的財務和營運目標。

Before I review the first quarter results, I would like to remind everyone that having an agreement to sell our fiber segment means that the fiber segment results are required to be operated -- reported sorry, within Crown Castle's financial statements as discontinued operations. As a result, the company's full year 2025 outlook and first quarter results do not include contributions from what we previously reported under the fiber segment, except as otherwise noted.

在回顧第一季業績之前，我想提醒大家，達成出售光纖部門的協議意味著光纖部門的業績需要在 Crown Castle 的財務報表中作為已停止的業務進行報告。因此，除非另有說明，否則該公司 2025 年全年展望和第一季業績不包括我們先前在光纖部門下報告的貢獻。

To aid in the review of our first quarter results, we've included in our earnings materials, full year 2024 results on a comparable basis. As we indicated last quarter, within our 2025 outlook and in our quarterly results, all financing expenses are included in continuing operations and do not reflect the impact of any expected use of proceeds from the sale of our fiber business.

為了幫助審查我們的第一季業績，我們在收益資料中納入了可比較的 2024 年全年業績。正如我們上個季度所指出的，在我們的 2025 年展望和季度業績中，所有融資費用均包含在持續經營中，並不反映出售光纖業務所得收益的任何預期用途的影響。

Additionally, SG&A has been allocated between continuing and discontinued operations to develop our outlook. However, these allocations may not represent the run rate SG&A for Crown Castle as a stand-alone tower company. As a result, adjusted EBITDA and AFFO and AFFO per share in our 2025 outlook and quarterly results may not be representative of the company's anticipated performance following the close of the sale.

此外，銷售、一般及行政費用已在持續經營業務及終止經營業務之間分配，以製定我們的展望。然而，這些分配可能並不代表 Crown Castle 作為一家獨立塔式公司的銷售、一般及行政費用的運作率。因此，我們 2025 年展望和季度業績中的調整後 EBITDA 和 AFFO 以及每股 AFFO 可能無法代表公司在出售完成後的預期業績。

Turning to our results on page 5 of our earnings materials. You can see that we had a solid start to our year in the first quarter. Site rental revenues included 5.1% tower organic growth excluding the impact of Sprint cancellations. This growth benefited from a $3 million contribution from other billings, primarily related to intercompany back billings that is not expected to recur going forward. Site rental revenues also included $19 million of straight-line revenues. Please keep in mind that we expect our straight-line revenues to turn negative consistent with our full year 2025 outlook of zero.

翻到我們收益資料第 5 頁的結果。您可以看到，我們第一季的業績開局良好。站點租賃收入包括 5.1% 的塔有機成長（不包括 Sprint 取消的影響）。這一增長得益於來自其他帳單的 300 萬美元貢獻，主要與預計未來不會再次出現的公司間往來帳單有關。場地租賃收入還包括 1900 萬美元的直線收入。請記住，我們預計我們的直線收入將變為負值，這與我們對 2025 年全年的零預期一致。

Adjusted EBITDA and AFFO in the first quarter benefited from lower repair and maintenance costs sustaining capital expenditures and other noncore costs. These lower costs were largely due to timing and seasonality, so we expect them to occur later in the year. We also experienced a modest decrease in quarterly interest expense due to lower-than-anticipated short-term borrowing rates.

第一季調整後的 EBITDA 和 AFFO 受益於較低的維修和維護成本，從而維持了資本支出和其他非核心成本。成本降低主要是由於時間和季節性因素，因此我們預計它們將在今年稍後發生。由於短期借款利率低於預期，我們的季度利息支出也略有下降。

Turning to page 6. Our full year outlook remains unchanged. Our full year outlook includes 4.5% organic growth, excluding the impact of Sprint cancellations, adjusted EBITDA of approximately $2.8 billion and AFFO of approximately $1.8 billion.

翻到第 6 頁。我們的全年展望保持不變。我們對全年的預期包括 4.5% 的有機成長（不包括 Sprint 取消的影響）、調整後的 EBITDA 約為 28 億美元和 AFFO 約為 18 億美元。

Additionally, we still expect to see $250 million of free cash flow from our discontinued operations in the full year 2025. In the first quarter, we generated $53 million of free cash flow from our discontinued operations or $75 million, excluding a $22 million increase in net working capital. We do not expect working capital to be a significant use of cash for the remainder of 2025.

此外，我們仍預計 2025 年全年將從已終止的業務中獲得 2.5 億美元的自由現金流。在第一季度，我們從已終止經營業務中產生了 5,300 萬美元的自由現金流，即 7,500 萬美元，不包括 2,200 萬美元的淨營運資本增加。我們預計，2025 年剩餘時間內營運資金不會成為現金的主要用途。

Moving to page 8. Our full year outlook positions us well to meet our range for expected annual AFFO following the anticipated close of the transaction of $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion, which remains unchanged. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with significant liquidity and flexibility, and we are well positioned to maintain our investment-grade rating after the sale of the fiber business. We ended the quarter with an average maturity of over 6 years, 89% fixed rate debt, approximately $5.3 billion of availability under our revolving credit facility and $2.1 billion of debt maturities over the next 12 months.

翻到第 8 頁。我們對全年的展望使我們預計將達到預期交易結束後 23 億至 24 億美元的年度 AFFO 範圍，這一範圍保持不變。轉向資產負債表。我們在本季結束時擁有充足的流動性和靈活性，並且在出售光纖業務後我們有能力維持投資等級。本季結束時，我們的平均債務期限超過 6 年，固定利率債務佔 89%，循環信貸額度下的可用金額約為 53 億美元，未來 12 個月內到期的債務金額為 21 億美元。

Lastly, our outlook for discretionary CapEx remains unchanged at $185 million or $145 million, net of $40 million of prepaid rent received. To wrap up, we had a strong start to the year, and we made good progress separating the fiber business and positioning the tower business to maximize shareholder value on a stand-alone basis.

最後，我們對可自由支配資本支出的預期保持不變，為 1.85 億美元或 1.45 億美元，扣除收到的 4,000 萬美元預付租金。總而言之，我們今年開局強勁，並且在分離光纖業務和定位塔業務方面取得了良好進展，從而最大限度地實現股東價值。

Longer term, we believe we have a unique value creation opportunity as the only public tower company exclusively focused on the US, the best market in the world for wireless infrastructure ownership.

從長遠來看，我們相信，作為唯一一家專注於美國——全球最佳無線基礎設施所有權市場——的公共塔公司，我們擁有獨特的價值創造機會。

With that, Darcy, I'd like to open the line for questions.

達西，現在我開始回答問題。

(Operator Instructions) Jonathan Atkin, RBC Capital Markets.

（操作員指示） Jonathan Atkin，RBC Capital Markets。

Two questions. It's been a very eventful year when it comes to kind of the executive range with Dan's movement now into the acting CEO seat and then soon that you're getting hired on. And I wonder if you could shed a little bit of light as to what happened since the last earnings call that led to this sort of sequence of events.

兩個問題。就高階主管而言，這是多事之秋，丹現在擔任代理首席執行官，很快你也會被聘用。我想知道您是否可以稍微解釋一下自上次收益電話會議以來發生了什麼，導致了這樣的一系列事件。

And then secondly, you outlined kind of the strategy going forward around capital return to shareholders, US only. And within the context of that, any further thoughts relative to what we shared on the last call around build-to-suits or external growth through tuck-in M&A and so forth.

其次，您概述了未來圍繞股東資本回報的策略，僅限美國。在此背景下，您對於我們在上次電話會議上分享的關於客製化生產或透過內部併購等實現外部成長有什麼進一步的想法嗎？

John, thanks for the question. I really can't speak for what happened with Stephen specifically other than to say you can just refer back to the press release the Board put out about what happened there. What I can say is that I'm excited to be a part of this company still. I think that the strategy that we are going under as we talked about, is one that I think will create significant value for shareholders over time and I'm excited to be a part of it. I think we can get a -- the separation of our fiber and small cell business is done effectively, and it's something that I'm focused on.

約翰，謝謝你的提問。我真的無法具體談論史蒂芬身上發生的事情，只能說你可以參考董事會發布的有關那裡發生的事情的新聞稿。我可以說的是，我仍然很高興成為這家公司的一員。我認為，我們所討論的策略將會隨著時間的推移為股東創造巨大的價值，我很高興成為其中的一員。我認為我們可以有效地分離我們的光纖和小型基地台業務，這是我所關注的。

And having Sunit here with all of his experience both in the industry as well as doing significant M&A transactions through his career, I believe, will help us get that transaction done as efficiently as possible and as quickly as possible.

我相信，憑藉蘇尼特在行業內以及職業生涯中參與重大併購交易的豐富經驗，他將幫助我們盡可能高效、快速地完成交易。

So what I can say is whatever has happened has led us to this point where I think we're really well positioned going forward and excited that we have a story that is focused on the US tower market only because I think it's a great market. and it simplifies our story and allows us to focus on the things that are most important to us, which are creating more value through growing our revenues and reducing our costs, which is what we're focused on.

因此我可以說，無論發生什麼，我們都已經達到了這樣的境界：我認為我們確實為未來做好了準備，並且很高興我們的故事只關注美國塔式市場，因為我認為這是一個很棒的市場。它簡化了我們的故事，讓我們能夠專注於對我們來說最重要的事情，即透過增加收入和降低成本來創造更多價值，這正是我們關注的重點。

To that, you further thoughts on what our strategy looks like. I think given where we are with a major sale transaction going on. M&A for us in the short term is unlikely. We have a lot of focus on getting done what is most important to us, which is separating the fiber and small cell business.

對此，您可以進一步思考我們的策略是什麼樣的。我認為，考慮到我們目前正在進行的一項重大銷售交易。短期內我們進行併購的可能性不大。我們非常注重完成對我們來說最重要的事情，即分離光纖和小型基地台業務。

So I don't think there's going to be a lot of M&A from us in the short term. Build-to-suit, however, absolutely, we'd be interested in as long as the returns are good. And investing organically in our business is something that we're very interested in because we think that the tower business is a great business that will generate great returns over time and the more of it we can invest into, we would like to do.

因此我認為短期內我們不會進行大量的併購。然而，只要回報良好，我們絕對會對客製化感興趣。我們對我們的業務進行有機投資非常感興趣，因為我們認為塔業務是一項偉大的業務，隨著時間的推移將產生巨大的回報，我們願意在其中投入更多。

Ric Prantiss, Raymond James.

瑞克普蘭提斯、雷蒙詹姆斯。

Looking forward to working with you and seeing you. I want to start with one with some, if I could. Obviously, you've been on the Board of Crown for a while. What appeal to you? Or what kind of triggered your thoughts of, let's move from a board role to a CFO role? And what do you think you then bring to that role?

期待與您合作並見到您。如果可以的話，我想從其中一個開始。顯然，您已在皇家委員會任職一段時間了。什麼吸引你？或者是什麼引發了您的想法，讓我們從董事會角色轉向財務長角色？那麼，您認為自己能為這個角色帶來什麼呢？

Yes. Look, I think one I really like the team at Crown very long-term capability in the tower business. I'm excited about the tower business and the prospects, having been T-Mobile for fears, I think there's continued demand for infrastructure.

是的。瞧，我認為我真的很喜歡 Crown 團隊在塔業務方面非常具有長期能力。我對塔業務和前景感到興奮，儘管曾擔心過 T-Mobile，但我認為對基礎設施的需求將持續存在。

And thirdly, I do think that as a pure tower only company that singular focus on that business will allow us to look at other things with respect to automation and system and platform investments that will continue to drive not just efficiency but better customer experience and over time, better top line performance. So glad to be here and being on the board to get to.

第三，我確實認為，作為一家純粹的塔式公司，專注於該業務將使我們能夠專注於自動化、系統和平台投資方面的其他事項，這不僅將繼續推動效率，還會帶來更好的客戶體驗，並隨著時間的推移帶來更好的營收表現。很高興來到這裡並成為董事會成員。

And Dan, you mentioned a couple of times top priority, key focus, get the deal done. Walk us through kind of where you're at in the process at only announced shortly ago, but what are the difficulties of getting this deal over the finish line? Is it particular states or where are you at in the process, but obviously, key focus, what are the difficulties?

丹，你幾次提到首要任務、重點是完成交易。請向我們介紹一下你們在不久前宣布的這一進程中所處的階段，但要完成這筆交易有哪些困難？是特定的狀態還是您處於流程的哪個階段，但顯然，重點是，困難是什麼？

Yes. I wouldn't call them difficulties. I think the reason that the transaction is going to take until the first half of 2026 to close is for regulatory approvals because we have to get approvals in all the states in which we operate as well as from the federal government. And those things just take time.

是的。我不會稱它們為困難。我認為該交易要到 2026 年上半年才能完成的原因是為了獲得監管部門的批准，因為我們必須獲得我們經營所在的所有州以及聯邦政府的批准。而這些事情只是需要時間。

I don't think that I would call them difficult. I would just say they are time consuming. It's a while for us to put together all the information we have to put together, and it's a low for them to review that information. We're going to work very closely with our counterparties and with our outside councils to make sure we get through that process as quickly as we possibly can.

我不認為我會稱它們為困難。我只想說它們很耗時。我們需要花一些時間來整理所有需要整理的信息，而他們審查這些信息的時間也很短。我們將與我們的對手方和外部委員會密切合作，以確保我們盡快完成此流程。

But as you know, it really is going to be up to those governmental agencies. There's nothing we can do to force them into anything. So we're just going to work with them and be as good a counterparty to them as we possibly can to try to get this deal done. So I'm -- I wouldn't say I'm concerned about anything. Where we are is that we're starting that process.

但正如你所知，這實際上取決於那些政府機構。我們無法強迫他們做任何事。因此，我們將與他們合作，盡可能成為他們的好夥伴，並努力完成這筆交易。所以我——我不會說我擔心任何事情。我們現在正處於啟動這一進程之中。

We're starting all those filings. We're starting those conversations with the governmental agencies. And we're starting to separate the businesses because we also have to deliver to each of our buyers, a business that operates, and we need to separate those businesses from our underlying tower business. And so we're starting that process and have started that process and believe we're making really good progress and have worked really well with both Sao and EQT to make that happen.

我們正在開始所有這些備案。我們正在與政府機構開始進行這些對話。我們開始分離業務，因為我們還必須向每個買家提供經營的業務，我們需要將這些業務與我們的基礎塔業務分開。因此，我們正在啟動這一進程，並且已經開始了這一進程，我們相信我們正在取得非常好的進展，並且我們已經與 Sao 和 EQT 進行了良好的合作，以實現這一目標。

Last one for me is, obviously, first quarter was pretty good. Very good. Had the $3 million backfilling intercompany primarily. You touched on a couple of things that might be positive or negative, but it seems like your confidence is well founded, should I say.

對我來說最後一個是，顯然第一季表現相當不錯。非常好。主要有 300 萬美元的補充公司間資金。您談到了一些可能積極或消極的事情，但我應該說，您的信心似乎是有根據的。

Also, you just gave the guidance 1.5 months ago. But walk us through maybe what the pacing for new lease activity should look like in '25 and kind of how we from the outside should think about the ability or desire maybe at some point to say we can now adjust our guidance?

而且，您一個半月前就給了指導。但是，請向我們介紹一下 25 年新租賃活動的節奏應該是什麼樣的，以及我們從外部應該如何思考能力或願望，也許在某個時候我們可以調整我們的指導？

Yes. As we talked about when we gave the guidance, we thought that the activity levels in our business would likely be consistent over the course of 2021 from 2024. And if you look at what we had in terms of core new leasing, for the first quarter. It is consistent with the fourth quarter. And so we don't see a significant move up or down from those numbers.

是的。正如我們在給予指引時所討論的那樣，我們認為從 2024 年開始，我們業務的活動水準在 2021 年可能會保持一致。如果你看一下我們第一季的核心新租賃情況。與第四季一致。因此，我們並沒有看到這些數字有明顯的上升或下降。

But as you know, it's never going to be exactly the same every quarter. So what we see is if we look out over the course of the rest of 2025. We believe for new leasing activity and ultimately, organic growth will be in the ranges that we provided as part of our guide of somewhere between $105 million and $115 million of leasing activity and then the growth of about 4.5%.

但如你所知，每季的情況都不會完全相同。因此，如果我們展望 2025 年剩餘時間，我們會看到什麼。我們相信，新的租賃活動以及最終的有機成長將在我們指南中提供的範圍內，即租賃活動金額在 1.05 億美元至 1.15 億美元之間，成長率約為 4.5%。

And Obviously, in the first quarter, we did better than that. And if we can continue to do a little bit better on new leasing activity and a little bit better on churn, which is what happened in the first quarter, as we got through the year and saw those things with more clarity through the back half of the year, I think we will feel comfortable talking about either being at the high end of the range or if it's even better than that, expanding the range. But we're just not there yet.

顯然，在第一季度，我們做得更好。如果我們能夠在新租賃活動和客戶流失方面繼續做得更好一些，就像第一季度發生的情況一樣，隨著我們度過這一年並在下半年更清楚地看到這些事情，我想我們會很舒服地談論要么處於高端，要么甚至更好，擴大範圍。但我們還沒到達那一步。

As you said, we gave guidance 7 weeks ago. We still believe in our guidance. We still believe we will be in the ranges we provided. But we're happy with where we are. It's better to start with the first quarter being really good and explaining that it's -- why is it going to be that good all the time as opposed to starting with it bad and saying everything is going to get better. So we're happy with that.

正如您所說，我們在七週前就給了指導。我們仍然相信我們的指導。我們仍然相信我們將處於我們提供的範圍內。但我們對現狀很滿意。最好從第一季的良好表現開始，然後解釋為什麼它會一直這麼好，而不是從糟糕的表現開始，然後說一切都會變得更好。所以我們對此感到高興。

And then on the cost side, there were some things that happened in the quarter that were acceleration or where we didn't spend money we thought we were going to spend. It's just going to happen in the rest of the year. But there's also some that we just -- we've spent a lot of time and effort trying to control our costs. And you saw that over the course of the last couple of years, with significant reductions in the number of people here and a significant focus on cost control and you're seeing the impact of that cost control coming into our numbers, and we're hopeful we can continue that going through 2025. But again, we're just too early to see through the year in order to feel really certain about that quite yet.

然後在成本方面，本季發生了一些事情，這些事情是加速的，或者我們沒有花掉我們認為要花的錢。這只是在今年餘下的時間裡發生的事情。但也有一些我們只是——我們花了大量的時間和精力來控制我們的成本。您可以在過去幾年中看到這一點，這裡的員工數量大幅減少，並且非常注重成本控制，並且您可以看到成本控制對我們的數字產生的影響，我們希望能夠繼續保持這種趨勢到 2025 年。但是，我們現在還無法真正確定今年的情況，因此還不能預見未來。

Michael Rowlands, Citi.

花旗銀行的麥可羅蘭茲 (Michael Rowlands)。

And also welcome to Sunit. Two questions, if I could. First, just maybe going back to some of the comments on activity that you're just describing, can you frame a little bit in terms of what you're seeing on the colo side of the equation versus the amendment side of the equation? And within that context, just any changes in the way the carrier conversations have been progressing?

也歡迎來到蘇尼特。如果可以的話，我有兩個問題。首先，也許回到您剛才描述的一些關於活動的評論，您能否根據您在等式的 colo 側和修正側看到的情況，稍微闡述一下？在這種背景下，運營商對話的進展方式有什麼變化嗎？

And then second, on the last call, you talked about the tail of churn from the merger, the Sprint merger that's going to start in '26 and continue for a few years. And just curious if there is any creative ways to try to remediate that or try to created an additional comprehensive relationship where you could try to address that and kind of clean it up in a way that's good for you and good for the customer.

其次，在上次電話會議上，您談到了合併帶來的客戶流失問題，Sprint 合併將於 26 年開始並持續幾年。我只是好奇是否有任何創造性的方法來嘗試補救這個問題，或者嘗試建立一種額外的綜合關係，你可以嘗試解決這個問題，並以對你和客戶都有利的方式來清理它。

Thanks, Mike. On the first question on color amendment, we have not seen a significant shift in the mix in our business between colo and amendment. We've just seen a continuation of a very good activity level and as that activity level has grown in 2024 from 2023 and continued good activity in 2025, we've seen more of each amendments and colocations.

謝謝，麥克。關於顏色修正的第一個問題，我們尚未看到我們的業務在顏色和修正之間的組合發生重大轉變。我們剛剛看到非常好的活動水平的延續，並且隨著 2024 年活動水平從 2023 年的增長以及 2025 年繼續保持良好的活動水平，我們看到了更多的修正和共置。

And the conversations with our carrier customers have been very good. We have those conversations all the time. I think that they are very focused on making sure that their networks are competing well on quality. And as we see their announcements over the course of the last week or so, the competitive pressure among our customers has increased. And we think that generally speaking, that's good for tower companies, Competitive pressure leads to pressure on network quality which leads to investment in towers over a period of time.

我們與營運商客戶的對話非常順利。我們一直在進行這樣的對話。我認為他們非常注重確保他們的網路在品質上具有良好的競爭力。正如我們在過去一周左右看到的他們發布的公告一樣，我們的客戶之間的競爭壓力已經加大。我們認為，總體而言，這對塔公司來說是件好事，競爭壓力會導致網路品質壓力，從而導致一段時間內對塔的投資。

But when that increase in activity would happen is very difficult to predict. And whether it would be over and above what we see today or just a continuation for a longer period of time is very difficult to predict. But we feel good about that competitive pressure increasing and ultimately being good for us in our business. And in the conversations we're having with our customers, I think we're seeing some signs of that desire to increase the quality of the network.

但這種活動何時會增加卻很難預測。而它是否會超出我們今天所見的水平，還是只是持續較長一段時間，則很難預測。但我們對於競爭壓力的增加感到高興，這最終對我們的業務有利。在我們與客戶的對話中，我認為我們看到了一些希望提高網路品質的跡象。

On the tail of Sprint churn going out, as you pointed out, we do have Sprint churn that is beyond the amount that hits in 2025, which has been explained a lot. And on a yearly basis, of course, if we could do something that would be good for us and our customer and clean up that churn, we would do so. The question becomes, what does that mean be good for us and our customer and how do we get to that conclusion.

在 Sprint 客戶流失之後，正如您所指出的，我們確實遇到了 Sprint 客戶流失，而且其數量超過了 2025 年的水平，這一點已經有很多解釋。當然，每年如果我們能做一些對我們和客戶都有好處的事情並消除客戶流失，我們就會這樣做。問題是，這對我們和我們的客戶意味著什麼，以及我們如何得出這個結論。

So we will have conversations and try to come up with something that makes sense. But having churn is not bad in our business beyond the fact that it's just generally bad to have churn, but even including that spread churn, what we had talked about is true is that our churn is going to be in the normal range of 1% to 2% over a long period of time, inclusive of that Sprint churn.

因此，我們會進行對話並嘗試找到一些有意義的方法。但是，對於我們的業務來說，出現客戶流失並不是什麼壞事，除了客戶流失通常都是不好的之外，即使包括這種擴散性客戶流失，我們所談論的事實是，我們的客戶流失率將在很長一段時間內處於 1% 到 2% 的正常範圍內，包括 Sprint 客戶流失。

And that has been what we've seen over the course of our history. So I would not say that living with that churn is a bad outcome. But if we could make it better, somehow we absolutely would.

這正是我們在歷史進程中所看到的。因此，我不會說忍受這種流失是一個糟糕的結果。但如果我們可以讓它變得更好，我們絕對會這麼做。

Jim Schneider, Goldman Sachs.

高盛的吉姆·施耐德。

Maybe just to ask the management question in a different way. Dan, can you maybe share with us the Board's thinking about sort of what they may be looking for and as CEO this time around with a more streamlined company rather than what they were post what they're looking for back 18 months ago when they were considering Stephen's candidacy?

也許只是以不同的方式提出管理問題。丹，您能否與我們分享董事會的想法，他們希望看到什麼樣的公司，以及作為首席執行官，這次他們希望看到什麼樣的公司，而不是 18 個月前他們考慮史蒂芬的候選資格時所希望的樣子？

Sure. Thanks, Jim. Yes. I think from my conversations with the Board, what they're looking for, is really somebody who has the leadership skills to drive this company forward as a tower only company and make us a best-in-class operator across the board. As Sunit said, both in terms of reducing cost, but also improving the customer experience and, therefore, trying to improve our revenue take.

當然。謝謝，吉姆。是的。我認為，從我與董事會的談話中可以看出，他們真正尋找的是具有領導才能的人，能夠推動公司發展成為一家只經營塔的公司，並使我們成為全面一流的運營商。正如蘇尼特所說，這不僅是為了降低成本，也是為了改善客戶體驗，從而努力提高我們的收入。

And somebody who has the experience to do that, in many cases, might have prior public company experience and has had experience in driving those types of improvements. And it's also on board with the strategy that has been outlined by the Board of being a US tower focused company that has capital to spend in order to grow that business.

在許多情況下，擁有此類經驗的人可能具有上市公司經驗，並且具有推動此類改進的經驗。該公司還同意董事會制定的策略，即成為一家專注於美國塔業務的公司，並擁有足夠的資本來發展該業務。

Within the constraint of making sure that we abide through the capital allocation framework we talked about earlier, having a dividend, having a share repurchase, keeping our -- maintaining our investment grade debt profile, but also investing in the business. And I think the Board is looking for somebody who can manage all of that, balance all of those things and come out the other side, the best tower business we possibly can be.

在確保我們遵守先前討論過的資本配置框架的限制下，派發股息、回購股票、維持我們的投資等級債務狀況，同時也投資於業務。我認為董事會正在尋找一個能夠管理所有這些、平衡所有這些事情並讓我們的塔業務盡可能做到最好的人。

Alex Waters, Bank of America.

美國銀行的亞歷克斯·沃特斯（Alex Waters）。

Welcome Sunit. Maybe first for you, Suni. Could you maybe just talk about some of the kind of strategic priorities you have coming in as CFO and kind of your preference between leverage reductions, programmatic or opportunistic buybacks?

歡迎蘇尼特。也許對你來說這是第一次，Suni。您能否談談您擔任財務長後的一些策略重點，以及您在降低槓桿率、計劃性或機會性回購之間的偏好？

And then secondly, could you guys maybe just talk a little bit about the services side of the business, both your competitors highlighted that they're seeing pretty good demand from customers on that?

其次，你們能否簡單談談業務的服務方面，你們的兩個競爭對手都強調，他們看到客戶對此有相當好的需求？

Thank you, Alex. I'll start with the first part of your question. I mean, look, the key priority for us right now over the course of this year is to get this separation and this transaction close. So we're all focused on that as the top priority. Beyond that, as we talked about, how do we position a US tower only company, we are starting to think through that in terms of things we need to do operationally, system-wise, platform-wise, process-wise.

謝謝你，亞歷克斯。我先從你的問題的第一部分開始。我的意思是，你看，我們今年的首要任務是完成這次分離和交易。因此，我們都將此作為首要任務。除此之外，正如我們所討論的，我們如何定位一家只在美國營運塔的公司，我們開始從營運、系統、平台和流程方面考慮我們需要做的事情。

So at least beginning to think about that and what's the right cost structure we want to operate on, what sort of things we want to do better for customers. So really, those are the key things. On the leverage and the buyback, I think we've been very clear, having been on the Board to on the finance committee in terms of our capital allocation framework.

因此，至少要開始考慮這一點，我們想要採用什麼樣的正確成本結構，我們想要為客戶做得更好哪些事情。所以，這些確實都是關鍵的事情。關於槓桿和回購，我認為我們已經非常清楚了，從董事會到財務委員會都明確了我們的資本配置框架。

So whatever Dan said and I said, I think essentially, the goal is to be investment grade to pay down debt for the sale, as we talked about, return capital to our shareholders through buyback and the dividend. And at the same time, I think that given that it's 75% to 80% of our FFO, we do have some degrees of freedom where we see the opportunity to put money to work in terms of investments to drive top line growth. So in essence, I mean that's the framework, and that's what we're sticking to.

所以無論丹和我說了什麼，我認為本質上，目標是達到投資等級以償還出售債務，正如我們所討論的，透過回購和股息向股東返還資本。同時，我認為，鑑於它占我們 FFO 的 75% 到 80%，我們確實有一定的自由度，我們看到了將資金投入投資以推動營收成長的機會。所以從本質上講，這就是框架，也是我們所堅持的。

Yes. And I'll take the second question on services. We are seeing good demand from our customers on the services business. I would like to point out though, and I think you know this, Alex, is that we got out of the construction services business and no longer have that as part of our offering. And I think a lot of what I heard from some of our peers and what they said was that some of the construction services we're driving an increase in activity.

是的。我將回答有關服務的第二個問題。我們看到客戶對服務業務的需求良好。不過我想指出的是，亞歷克斯，我想你知道這一點，我們已經退出了建築服務業務，不再將其作為我們的服務內容之一。我認為我從一些同行那裡聽到的許多消息以及他們所說的情況是，我們正在推動一些建築服務活動的增加。

What we're seeing is really good activity that we've seen, like I said earlier, that's a continuation, both in our services and our leasing businesses. But we are seeing an uptick in some of the services activity we had I'll just remind you that some of our services in 2024 were onetime in nature. So we need to make up for those in order to just to remain flat. We think we will do so, and that speaks to an increasing level of activity.

我們看到的是非常好的活動，就像我之前說的，這是一種延續，無論是在我們的服務還是租賃業務中。但我們看到我們的一些服務活動有所增加，我只是想提醒你，我們在 2024 年提供的一些服務本質上是一次性的。因此，我們需要彌補這些，以保持平穩。我們認為我們會這樣做，這說明活動水準正在不斷提高。

Benjamin Swinburne, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的班傑明‧斯溫伯恩。

Dan, you touched on it a little bit earlier, but I just wanted to come back to the expense side of the business this year. Very strong margin quarter in Q1, a couple of hundred basis points, I think, ahead of expectations. And I think if we were to annualize the first quarter EBITDA, you'd be ahead of the full year range.

丹，你剛才提到了這一點，但我只是想回到今年業務的費用方面。第一季的利潤率非常強勁，我認為比預期高出幾百個基點。我認為，如果我們將第一季的 EBITDA 進行年度化，那麼您將領先於全年水準。

Can you talk a little bit about sort of the phasing of costs through the year? And maybe it's simply the straight-line revenue putting downward pressure on EBITDA at rest of the year, but any color would be appreciated.

能否稍微談談全年成本分階段的狀況？也許這只是直線收入對今年剩餘時間的 EBITDA 造成下行壓力，但任何顏色都會受到歡迎。

And then I don't think this was discussed last call on the fiber small cell sale. But any tax implications either tax -- cash tax liabilities tied to the sale or any other tax implications for the company as you close the pending sale next year that we should be thinking about?

然後，我不認為這是關於光纖小型基地台銷售的最後一次討論。但是，當您明年完成待定銷售時，我們應該考慮任何稅務影響，無論是與銷售相關的稅收——現金稅負，還是公司任何其他稅收影響？

Yes. Thanks, Ben. I'm going to take them in reverse because the second question is easy. There are no tax implications you should be considering as part of the sale. We won't have a tax impact.

是的。謝謝，本。我將反過來回答這些問題，因為第二個問題很簡單。在銷售過程中您無需考慮任何稅務影響。我們不會受到稅收影響。

On the expense side, you're right. The first quarter was very strong margins. But as Sunit said in our prepared remarks, some of that reduction or lower expense was due to seasonality and timing where we think that some of it will be -- a lot of it will be incurred. A lot of that expense will be incurred the rest of the year.

從費用方面來看，你是對的。第一季的利潤率非常高。但正如蘇尼特在我們準備好的評論中所說，部分減少或降低的費用是由於季節性和時間因素造成的，我們認為其中一部分——大部分費用將會發生。大部分費用將在今年剩餘時間內產生。

But as I had mentioned, we also have been very focused on cost control. So we're hopeful that we can maintain some of that lower cost structure going forward, it's just -- we're not yet at the position where we feel comfortable enough to talk about that as being sustainable. But like I said earlier, on the leasing side, it's great to start out significantly below on the expense line because it gives us a lot of visibility and comfort in our current guide.

但正如我所提到的，我們也非常注重成本控制。因此，我們希望能夠在未來保持一些較低的成本結構，只是——我們還沒有達到足夠放心談論其可持續性的程度。但就像我之前說的，在租賃方面，從費用線的較低處開始是很好的，因為它讓我們在當前的指南中有了很大的可見性和舒適度。

And I would also just -- you mentioned the straight line. The reason that we talked about it a bit was straight line does turn negative by the end of the year as part of our -- as you could just math shows you that if it's positive now, and our guidance for zero, it has to turn negative in the back half of the year. And that does put pressure on our EBITDA, which is why we mentioned it is that annualizing fourth quarter is -- I mean, first quarter, is not an appropriate way to look for the -- at the full year because of that and other impacts.

我也只是──你提到了直線。我們討論這個問題的原因是，到今年年底，直線確實會變成負數——正如你所看到的，如果現在是正數，而我們的指導值為零，那麼到今年下半年它就必須變成負數。這確實給我們的 EBITDA 帶來了壓力，這就是我們提到它的原因，因為這個和其他影響，將第四季度（我的意思是第一季）年度化並不是尋找全年的合適方式。

Nick Del Deo, MoffettNathanson.

尼克·德爾·迪奧，莫菲特·內森森。

Dan, Sunit congratulations to both on your appointments. I think you had initiated or we're studying a number of operational improvement or efficiency projects under Stephen, kind of with the expectation that, that work might pick up when the strategic review had wrapped up. I was wondering if you could update us on like what's underway and in motion versus things that might be on pause either for Sunit or the new CEO to kind of review them and have an opportunity to apply their stamp.

丹，蘇尼特，祝賀你們二位獲得任命。我認為您已經發起或我們正在研究史蒂芬領導下的一系列營運改善或效率項目，希望在策略審查結束後，這些工作能夠有所進展。我想知道您是否可以向我們介紹正在進行和正在進行的事情以及可能暫停的事情，以便 Sunit 或新任首席執行官對其進行審查並有機會施加影響。

Yes. The things that Stephen had discussed are still on our radar, and we are executing against them. We are not waiting for a new CEO. We know that there are some things we need to do to make our tower business better. And we do not believe that a new CEO would have a different view of that and would be very happy to inherit something that is in a better shape than it is today.

是的。史蒂芬所討論的事情仍然在我們的關注範圍內，我們正在按照這些事情執行。我們並不是在等待新的執行長。我們知道，我們需要做一些事情來讓我們的塔業務變得更好。我們不相信新任執行長會對此有不同的看法，並且會很高興繼承比現在更好的東西。

So we are still working through automation of our process. We're still working through implementation of systems, upgrades and implementations of systems changes that we think will make our process more streamlined in our customer experience easier. And we're looking at ways to digitize our assets and ensure that we are both getting paid, everything we need to get paid, and we have the right amount of marketable asset space that we can go talk to our customers about.

因此我們仍在努力實現流程自動化。我們仍在努力實施系統、升級和實施系統變更，我們認為這將使我們的流程更加簡化，客戶體驗更加輕鬆。我們正在尋找將資產數位化的方法，確保我們都能獲得報酬，獲得報酬所需的一切，並且我們擁有適量的可銷售資產空間，可以與客戶洽談。

We're doing all those things and hoping that they get done very quickly. And if that happens before a new CEO, then more power to us into that person because I think that will be better for everybody involved. And then we'll find new things to go do because we have a lot to do. And I think the benefit -- one of the benefits of streamlining our business into a tower only business is that we can focus all of our attention on getting better at towers, and we believe that will lead to improvements over time.

我們正在做所有這些事情，並希望它們很快就能完成。如果在新任執行長上任之前發生這種情況，那麼我們將賦予該人更多權力，因為我認為這對所有相關人員來說都是有利的。然後我們會尋找新的事情去做，因為我們有很多事情要做。我認為將我們的業務精簡為僅涉及塔的業務的好處之一是，我們可以將所有註意力集中在改進塔上，我們相信這將隨著時間的推移帶來改進。

Richard Shao from JPMorgan.

摩根大通的 Richard Shao。

I just wanted to follow up on the core new leasing. Was this from a particular carrier? Or is it across the board? And then can we get a sense of maybe what your backlog of business looks like for the rest of the year from your carrier customers.

我只是想跟進核心的新租賃情況。這是來自某個特定的運營商嗎？還是全面的？然後我們能否從您的運營商客戶那裡了解您今年剩餘時間的業務積壓情況。

Yes. Like I said, it's a continuation of the activity level we had seen. And so it was across the board. There is no specific carrier we would point to. And I'm not sure how to talk about our backlog of business, not something business.

是的。正如我所說的，這是我們所看到的活動水準的延續。整個情況都是如此。我們無法指出任何特定的承運人。我不知道該如何談論我們的積壓業務，而不是某些業務。

That's not something that we talk about. I would just say that we are comfortable with the amount of activity that we see coming in from our customers that we will be able to meet our guidance and believe that the activity levels around the industry as our customers continue to deploy 5G and hopefully start to densify more on -- in areas where they don't have coverage, that will continue to drive really good demand for our towers over the course of 2025 and beyond.

這不是我們要談論的事情。我想說的是，我們對來自客戶的活動量感到滿意，我們將能夠達到我們的預期，並相信隨著我們的客戶繼續部署 5G，並希望在沒有覆蓋的地區開始進一步密集化，整個行業的活動水平將在 2025 年及以後繼續推動對我們塔的真正良好需求。

Batya Levi from UBS.

瑞銀的 Batya Levi。

Great to talk to you, Sunit again. And I had a few questions. First on the SG&A side. Can you provide some color on the guidelines you used to allocate SG&A between segments? And to the event that there is some more allocated back to the tower business, is there a rough percentage that we could think about?

很高興再次與您交談，Sunit。我有幾個問題。首先是銷售、一般及行政費用 (SG&A) 方面。您能否詳細說明一下在各部門之間分配銷售、一般及行政費用 (SG&A) 時所採用的指導原則？如果有更多的資金分配給塔業務，我們可以考慮一個大概的百分比嗎？

And as you make more progress on cost savings, should we expect that the annual AFFO growth that you provided that range $250 million to $370 million could be potentially narrowed or updated as you pull forward some of those savings? And maybe just a quick one on the regulatory front. Should we expect that the approval process will be a holistic review of both small cell and fiber businesses and close at the same time.

隨著您在成本節約方面取得更多進展，我們是否可以預期，隨著您提前進行部分節約，您提供的 2.5 億美元至 3.7 億美元的年度 AFFO 增長可能會縮小或更新？也許只是在監管方面快速談一談。我們是否應該預期審批流程將對小型基地台和光纖業務進行全面審查並同時結束。

Yes. Thanks, Batya. I try to get all of those, but if we missed something, just let me know. The way that we allocate SG&A between segments is according to the accounting rules, that anybody and any cost that is directly related to our fiber solutions and small cell business is allocated to discontinued operations which leaves some shared costs in the [RemainCo] of the tower business and Crown Castle's tower business.

是的。謝謝，巴蒂亞。我嘗試獲取所有這些，但如果我們遺漏了什麼，請告訴我。我們在各個部門之間分配銷售、一般和行政費用的方式是根據會計規則，任何人和任何與我們的光纖解決方案和小型基地台業務直接相關的成本都分配給已停止運營的業務，這使得塔業務和 Crown Castle 的塔業務的 [RemainCo] 中有一些共享成本。

And the way that, that will work and as we've talked about is, we do not believe that, that is necessarily representative of what the cost structure will be for a tower only company when we closed the deal, which was why we provided a view of the run rate AFFO at the time of close, assuming the time it closes, is mid-2026.

而且這種方法將會奏效，正如我們所討論的那樣，我們認為這不一定代表我們完成交易時僅有塔的公司的成本結構，這就是為什麼我們在交易完成時提供了運行率 AFFO 的觀點，假設交易完成的時間是 2026 年中期。

We provided that look so that you can see that there is some benefit that we think we can see in terms of the full run rate cost structure at that time not being as high as it is today. As part of our continuing operations.

我們提供這種觀察是為了讓您看到，我們認為從當時的全運行率成本結構來看，我們可以看到一些好處，因為當時的成本結構不像今天那麼高。作為我們持續經營的一部分。

And therefore, on the second question, you said on the cost savings, I think it's true across the board that as we get further into the year and we see what our performance is both on cost and on revenues, we will be able to either narrow the range or change the range according to what those results will be, but we believe we'll get more confidence in the ranges that we have going forward.

因此，關於第二個問題，您說的是成本節約，我認為這是事實，隨著我們進一步進入今年，我們看到了我們在成本和收入方面的表現，我們將能夠縮小範圍或根據結果改變範圍，但我們相信，我們會對未來的範圍更有信心。

But I'm not sure that that's going to push all the way to the AFFO at the time of close because there are a lot of different things that need to happen in order for us to get to that level. So I'm not sure we'll narrow that band of the AFO at the time of close -- until we're much closer to closing.

但我不確定這是否會在結束時一直推動到 AFFO，因為為了達到這個水平，我們還需要做很多不同的事情。因此，我不確定我們是否會在關閉時縮小 AFO 的範圍——直到我們接近關閉為止。

And the last question you asked is on the regulatory and closing. We will close this transaction as one transaction as a sale to two different buyers. But the regulatory looks are for each of those buyers because they're each buying different assets. So they will close together, but I wouldn't say that's necessarily that the regulatory review is holistic among both of them. It will happen at the same time. But there are two businesses being sold to two different buyers.

您問的最後一個問題是關於監管和收盤的問題。我們將把這筆交易作為一筆銷售給兩個不同買家的交易來結束。但監管機構針對的是每個買家，因為他們各自購買的是不同的資產。因此它們會緊密聯繫在一起，但我不會說這必然意味著兩者之間的監管審查是全面的。它將同時發生。但有兩家企業被出售給兩個不同的買家。

Jonathan Chaplin, New Street Research.

喬納森·卓別林（Jonathan Chaplin），新街研究公司（New Street Research）。

Sunit, great to have you back in the fold in the industry. Quick question. Just following up on Batya's question on the shared costs that stay in SG&A that have the potential to come out. Can you give us sort of any quantification around the magnitude of opportunity there?

Sunit，很高興您能重返這個行業。快速提問。我只是想跟進 Batya 提出的問題，即保留在銷售、一般和行政費用中的共享成本有可能會被扣除。您能否對那裡的機會規模做出量化評估？

And then on the share repurchase program, the $3 billion that follows the closing of the deal, could you give us some context for the timing of that? Is it going to be sort of programmatic spit out over a number of quarters? Or will it be an accelerated share repurchase program sort of executed with the bank that will be reflected in the share count instantly.

然後關於股票回購計劃，即交易完成後的 30 億美元，您能否為我們介紹一下該計劃的具體時間？這會不會以某種程序化的方式在多個季度內推出？或者這將是與銀行一起執行的加速股票回購計劃，並將立即反映在股票數量中。

Yes. We're not in a position to talk about the quantification of the costs and any type of reductions that might happen at this point. The reason we gave the big buckets is because there's a lot of moving parts there. And we will update what we believe the run rate AFFO to be as a stand-alone business as we get closer to close. But just -- we're not in a position of providing any additional color at this point.

是的。目前我們還無法談論成本的量化以及可能發生的任何類型的削減。我們之所以使用大桶是因為那裡有很多活動部件。隨著交易接近尾聲，我們將更新我們認為的運行率 AFFO 作為獨立業務的理念。但只是——我們目前無法提供任何額外的顏色。

And on the share repurchase, it's a similar answer. And I'm sorry, Jonathan, it's just -- we're too far away to have the answers to all those questions. We believe that we will have significant capital to be able to repurchase shares.

對於股票回購，答案也是類似的。很抱歉，喬納森，我們距離太遠，無法得到所有這些問題的答案。我們相信我們將擁有足夠的資本來回購股票。

How we do so and when we do so, will likely be based on the current market conditions at the time of close and the view we have of what our stock price is and the view that we have of what we think we want to do with our capital at the time, but it's very important to us to repurchase shares with the proceeds from this transaction that are beyond what we think is, as we talked about, about $6 billion of debt repayment.

我們如何做以及何時做，很可能取決於交易完成時的市場狀況、我們對股價的看法以及我們對當時如何使用資本的看法，但對於我們來說，用這次交易的收益回購股票非常重要，這筆錢超出了我們之前談到的約 60 億美元的債務償還。

We will use the remainder to buy back shares and we'll try to do it quickly. It will just depend on what the market conditions are at the time that close happens to know how quickly that will be and how quickly it will be reflected in our share count.

我們將利用剩餘資金回購股票，並儘快完成。這只取決於收盤時的市場狀況，以了解收盤速度以及收盤價反映在我們的股票數量上的速度。

Great. And sorry, Dan, can you just remind me what your target leverage will be following the deal following, yes.

偉大的。抱歉，丹，您能否提醒我交易之後您的目標槓桿是多少，是的。

Yes. So we think, as Sunit pointed out and I talked about, we want to maintain our investment-grade rating. We have done some preliminary analysis and believe that we can -- due to the significant stability of the cash flow profile of the US only tower business that we will be able to maintain that investment grade rating at 6 times to 6.5 times EBITDA.

是的。因此，我們認為，正如蘇尼特指出的和我談到的，我們希望維持我們的投資等級。我們已經做了一些初步分析，並相信我們可以——由於美國塔業務的現金流狀況非常穩定，我們將能夠將投資級評級維持在 EBITDA 的 6 倍至 6.5 倍。

Brandon Nispel, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

布蘭登‧尼斯佩爾 (Brandon Nispel)，KeyBanc 資本市場。

I wanted to ask about sort of new bookings that you signed during the quarter, not necessarily the billings that you report. But could you help us understand how tower leasing bookings were during the quarter? Are they up year-over-year? Are they up quarter-over-quarter? Some color on that would be helpful given some of your peers have called that out.

我想詢問的是本季您簽署的新訂單情況，不一定是您報告的帳單。但是您能幫助我們了解本季塔租預訂情況嗎？它們比去年同期有所上漲嗎？它們比上一季有所成長嗎？鑑於您的一些同行已經指出了這一點，對此進行一些說明將會很有幫助。

Yes. Thanks, Brandon. As we've been talking about, we see the activity levels through 2025 being relatively consistent through the course of the year for us. And the new leasing that we have being very consistent over the course of the year, -- we think those are very good levels and drive 4.5% growth, which is good for our business. We'll do everything we can to try to improve that.

是的。謝謝，布蘭登。正如我們一直在談論的，我們預計到 2025 年全年的活動水準將相對穩定。而且，我們全年的新租賃業務保持非常穩定的成長——我們認為這是非常好的水平，推動了 4.5% 的成長，這對我們的業務有利。我們將竭盡全力去改善這一點。

But there's nothing that we've seen that would make us change that expectation that over time, we will be pretty consistent over the course of the year.

但我們所看到的一切都不會改變我們的預期，即隨著時間的推移，我們將在全年保持相當的一致性。

Brendan Lynch from Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的布倫丹·林奇。

Dan, you alluded to the transaction closing all at once. I'm curious if there's some sort of regulatory hiccup in one or two states, what would that actually mean for the deal?

丹，你提到交易會一次結束。我很好奇，如果一、兩個州出現某種監管問題，這對交易意味著什麼？

Yes. First thing I would say is we do not expect any regulatory hiccups in any of the states. We would have to see what exactly they are. And the buyers are aware that if something like that were to happen, we still going to likely close the deal. I just -- but the question becomes a hypothetical one of how big the hiccup is you're talking about. We just we don't see a big hiccup coming. So we are not concerned about closing this transaction in the first quarter of 2026. I mean, first quarter 2025, sorry.

是的。首先我想說的是，我們預期任何一個州都不會有監管問題。我們必須看看它們到底是什麼。買家也知道，如果發生這樣的事情，我們仍然可能會完成交易。我只是——但問題變成了一個假設，就是你所說的問題有多大。我們只是沒有預見到大麻煩即將發生。因此，我們並不擔心在 2026 年第一季完成這筆交易。我的意思是，2025 年第一季度，抱歉。

Okay. That's fair. And then just one on your MLAs. Can you quantify, even if broadly, how much of the growth you are reporting is stemming from MLAs versus demand that is above and beyond what the carriers have already contracted?

好的。這很公平。然後只針對您的 MLA 提出一項。您能否量化（即使是大致量化）您所報告的成長有多少源自於 MLA，以及超出承運商已簽約範圍的需求？

I would say that about 90% of our growth for 2025 is already contracted, which leaves us to the 10% that we need to make happen which is a great place to be. It's always great for a business to be able to look at as far as we are able to look out and understand where our growth is coming from.

我想說，我們 2025 年的成長目標已經縮小了約 90%，只剩下我們需要實現的 10%，這是一個很好的目標。對於企業來說，能夠放眼長遠並了解我們的成長來自哪裡總是一件好事。

And it's one of the great things about the tower business. It's a really good business, partly because the visibility is so great. And we're excited to be where we are. The activity levels are good, and we have a lot of comfort in being able to deliver our 2025 result.

這是塔業務的偉大之處之一。這是一項非常好的業務，部分原因是知名度很高。我們對於現在的處境感到非常興奮。活動量良好，我們對能夠實現 2025 年的成果感到非常放心。

And if the carriers were able or are interested in increasing the pace of their deployment, would that generally fall within the MLAs that you have? Or would that be outside and kind of increase the mix of extra MLA contribution?

如果營運商能夠或有興趣加快部署速度，這通常會在你們的 MLA 範圍內嗎？或者這會在外部並增加額外的 MLA 貢獻？

It really depends on how the MLA itself is structured, and we're not going to get into how we do that with each customer here. But there are both portions of activity that are contract are in MLA and portions of activity that would be incremental to the MLA. It really depends on how each customer acts and what is included in each MLA that we have. We believe we have upside to what is already contracted. And we believe we have a lot of stability based on what is contracted.

這實際上取決於 MLA 本身的結構，我們不會在這裡討論如何與每個客戶做到這一點。但是，MLA 中既有合約規定的活動部分，也有對 MLA 而言是增量的活動部分。這實際上取決於每個客戶的行為以及我們每個 MLA 中包含的內容。我們相信，我們已經擁有了履行合約的優勢。我們相信，根據所簽訂的合同，我們將擁有很大的穩定性。

Thank you. That does conclude our question-and-answer session. And with that, the conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

謝謝。我們的問答環節到此結束。至此，會議結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。