Crown Castle (CCI) 2024 RBC Capital Markets Global Industrials Conference summary

Macro environment and capital allocation

• Core tower business is resilient to macroeconomic and political events, with demand driven by increasing mobile data usage.

• Interest rates impact cost of capital and stock valuation more than operational performance.

• Capital allocation decisions are based on long-term cost of capital, not short-term market fluctuations.

• Short-term market changes do not significantly alter capital allocation strategy, but sustained changes in cost of capital prompt adjustments.

Operational changes and strategic review

• Shifted fiber and small cell strategy in June to focus on maximizing returns from existing assets rather than new build-outs.

• Reduced capital expenditures by prioritizing co-location and on-net opportunities, aiming for stable growth with less investment.

• Implemented significant workforce reductions to align with lower capital activity.

• Ongoing strategic review may result in sale, retention, or restructuring of small cell and fiber businesses, with timing driven by value maximization.

• Board is actively engaged in evaluating the best structure for maximizing shareholder value.

Industry trends and growth drivers

• AI and increased data demand are seen as positive, driving further need for data movement and infrastructure.

• Company assets are well-positioned to benefit from metro data center connectivity, but not targeting non-metro, AI-centric data centers.

• Shared infrastructure model in dense metro markets remains a competitive advantage.

• O-RAN network architecture is neutral to financial impact, while fixed wireless access (FWA) is a positive driver due to increased data usage.