NASDAQ:SBAC SBA Communications Q3 2021 Earnings Report $195.60 -0.22 (-0.11%) Closing price 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$195.76 +0.16 (+0.08%) As of 05:21 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Massive. Learn more. ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast SBA Communications EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.43Consensus EPS $0.83Beat/MissMissed by -$0.40One Year Ago EPS$2.38SBA Communications Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$589.30 millionExpected Revenue$577.28 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$12.02 millionYoY Revenue Growth+12.70%SBA Communications Announcement DetailsQuarterQ3 2021Date10/31/2021TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateSunday, October 31, 2021Conference Call Time8:00PM ETUpcoming EarningsSBA Communications' Q2 2026 earnings is estimated for Monday, August 3, 2026, based on past reporting schedules, with a conference call scheduled at 5:00 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by SBA Communications Q3 2021 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrOctober 31, 2021 ShareLink copied to clipboard.Key Takeaways Q3 results beat expectations with GAAP site leasing revenues of $535.5 M, cash site leasing revenues of $525.1 M, tower cash flow of $428.1 M, adjusted EBITDA of $407 M and AFFO of $302.5 M ($2.71 per share, +13.9% YoY), while maintaining strong tower cash flow margins (84.6% domestic, 69.9% international) and a 70.3% adjusted EBITDA margin. Domestic leasing activity remained robust: same‐tower recurring cash leasing revenue grew 3.6% YoY (6.1% gross) despite 2.5% churn, Q3 bookings matched Q2’s highest level since 2014, and backlog reached a new multiyear high, prompting an increase to the full‐year 2021 outlook. International operations delivered 5.2% net same‐tower cash leasing revenue growth (7.9% gross) on a constant‐currency basis, led by Brazil’s 9.5% gross growth, although churn rose due to carrier consolidations and contract changes in Central America. Portfolio expansion continued with 144 site acquisitions ($57.1 M) and 87 new builds in Q3, plus agreements to purchase ~1,700 additional sites for $231 M (including Airtel Tanzania), expected to close by Q2 2022. Balance sheet and capital returns strengthened: net debt of $11.7 B (7.2x leverage), pro forma average debt cost down to 2.6%, $1.79 B securitization refinancing saving ~$35 M in annual interest, $350 M of share repurchases with a new $1 B authorization, and a Q4 dividend of $0.58 per share. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallSBA Communications Q3 202100:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipantsPresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the third quarter results for SBA. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will have a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to queue up for a question, you can press one then zero at any time during today's call. If you need assistance during the call, please press star then zero. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Vice President of Finance, Mark DeRussy. Please go ahead. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:00:32Good evening, and thank you for joining us for SBA's third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. Here with me today are Jeff Stoops, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Brendan Cavanagh, our Chief Financial Officer. Some of the information we will discuss on this call is forward-looking, including, but not limited to, any guidance for 2021 and beyond. In today's press release and in our SEC filings, we detail material risks that may cause our future results to differ from our expectations. Our statements are as of today, November 1st, and we have no obligation to update any forward-looking statement we may make. In addition, our comments will include non-GAAP financial measures and other key operating metrics. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:01:14The reconciliation of GAAP and other information regarding these items can be found in our supplemental financial data package, which is located on the landing page of our investor relations website. With that, I will now turn it over to Brendan to discuss our third quarter results. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:01:30Thank you, Mark. Good evening. SBA had another great quarter with financial and operating results ahead of our expectations and continued strong momentum into the end of the year. Total GAAP site leasing revenues for the third quarter were $535.5 million, and cash site leasing revenues were $525.1 million. Foreign exchange rates were generally in line with our previously forecasted FX rate estimates for the quarter. They were a tailwind, though, on comparisons to the third quarter of 2020, positively impacting revenues by $3.2 million on a year-over-year basis. Same-tower recurring cash leasing revenue growth for the third quarter, which is calculated on a constant currency basis, was 3.6% over the third quarter of 2020, including the impact of 2.5% of churn. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:02:26On a gross basis, same-tower growth was 6.1%. Domestic same-tower recurring cash leasing revenue growth over the third quarter of last year was 5.7% on a gross basis and 3.3% on a net basis, including 2.4% of churn. Domestic operational leasing activity or bookings representing new revenue placed under contract during the third quarter was at a similar level to the second quarter, which had represented the highest quarterly level since 2014. Even with this high level of execution, our domestic new lease and new amendment application backlog continued to grow during the quarter and finished the quarter higher and at a new multi-year high. These backlogs support our expectations for continued strong domestic operational leasing activity throughout the balance of this year and into 2022. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:03:23During the third quarter, amendment activity represented 45% of our domestic bookings, with 55% coming from new leases. The Big Four carriers of AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Dish represented 96% of total incremental domestic leasing revenue signed up during the quarter. Internationally, on a constant currency basis, same-tower cash leasing revenue growth was 5.2% net, including 2.7% of churn or 7.9% on a gross basis. International leasing activity increased again quarter-over-quarter and was the highest in over a year. Churn grew some in the quarter as well and is anticipated to increase further as we experience the impacts of carrier consolidations and other network and contract modifications in Central America. In Brazil, our largest international market, we had another quarter of increased leasing activity. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:04:23Gross same-tower organic growth in Brazil was 9.5% on a constant currency basis. During the third quarter, 84.5% of consolidated cash site leasing revenue was denominated in US dollars. The majority of non-US dollar-denominated revenue was from Brazil, with Brazil representing 11.7% of consolidated cash site leasing revenues during the quarter and 8.4% of cash site leasing revenue excluding revenues from pass-through expenses. Tower cash flow for the third quarter was $428.1 million. Our tower cash flow margins remain very strong with a third quarter domestic tower cash flow margin of 84.6% and an international tower cash flow margin of 69.9% or 90.8% excluding the impact of pass-through reimbursable expenses. Adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter was $407 million. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:05:25The adjusted EBITDA margin was 70.3% in the quarter. Excluding the impact of revenues from pass-through expenses, adjusted EBITDA margin was 74.7%. Approximately 97% of our total adjusted EBITDA was attributable to our tower leasing business in the third quarter. During the third quarter, our services business produced record results for the second quarter in a row with $53.8 million in revenue and $12.5 million of segment operating profit. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:05:59Activity levels remained very high in the quarter, and backlogs also continued to grow, finishing the quarter at another all-time high level in our company's history. Based on our strong third quarter and a growing backlog, we have increased our full year 2021 outlook for site development revenue for the third quarter in a row, now expecting $200 million of site development revenue at the midpoint of our outlook range. AFFO in the third quarter was $302.5 million. AFFO per share was $2.71, an increase of 13.9% over the third quarter of 2020. During the third quarter, we continued to expand our portfolio, acquiring 144 communication sites for total cash consideration of $57.1 million. We also built 87 new sites in the quarter. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:06:57Subsequent to quarter end, we have purchased or are under agreement to purchase approximately 1,700 additional sites in our existing markets for an aggregate price of $231 million, including approximately 1,400 sites and approximately $175 million related to the previously announced deal to acquire towers from Airtel Tanzania. We anticipate closing on these sites under contract by the end of the second quarter of next year, and we anticipate the Airtel Tanzania transaction to close in stages starting in the fourth quarter of this year. Consistent with our prior outlook, our updated 2021 outlook assumes that the Airtel acquisition closes at the end of the year, and thus we have included the entire purchase price in our outlook for discretionary capital expenditures, but we have included no revenue or tower cash flow associated with these assets. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:07:52In addition to new tower assets, we also continue to invest in the land under our sites. During the quarter, we spent an aggregate of $11.6 million to buy land and easements and to extend ground lease terms. At the end of the quarter, we owned or controlled for more than 20 years the land underneath approximately 72% of our towers. The average remaining life under our ground leases, including renewal options under our control, is approximately 37 years. In this afternoon's earnings press release, we included our updated outlook for full year 2021. Notwithstanding our assumption of weaker fourth quarter foreign exchange rates, our updated outlook includes increased expectations for site leasing revenue, site development revenue, tower cash flow, adjusted EBITDA, AFFO, and AFFO per share. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:08:42These increases result from high services activity levels with our carrier customers, anticipated timing shifts in domestic consolidation churn, reduced cash interest expense as a result of recent refinancings, and the impact of recent share repurchases. We anticipate that our strong domestic leasing bookings during the second and third quarters will be supportive of improved incremental organic domestic leasing revenue in 2022, which we will share on our fourth quarter earnings call. With that, I will now turn things over to Mark, who will provide an update on our liquidity position and balance sheet. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:09:19Thanks, Brendan. We ended the quarter with $11.9 billion of total debt and $11.7 billion of net debt. Our net debt to annualized adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio was 7.2x. Our third quarter net cash interest coverage ratio of adjusted EBITDA to net cash interest expense was 4.6x, the highest in the company's history. On July 7th, the company amended its revolving credit facility. Among other things, the amendment increased the total commitment under the facility from $1.25 billion to $1.5 billion, extended the maturity date of the facility to July 7th, 2026, lowered the applicable interest rate margins and commitment fees under the facility, and incorporated sustainability-linked targets into the facility, allowing for interest rate and commitment fee adjusted adjustments based on how we perform against those targets. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:10:15As of today, we have no amounts outstanding under our revolver. On October 14th, the company repaid at par the entire aggregate principal amount of the 2013-2C tower securities, which had an anticipated repayment date of April 11th, 2023. On October 27th, the company, through an existing trust, issued $895 million of 1.84% secured tower revenue securities series 2021-2C, which have an anticipated repayment date of April 9th, 2027, and a final maturity date of October 10th, 2051. $895 million of 2.593% secured tower revenue securities series 2021-3C, which have an anticipated repayment date of October 9th, 2031, and a final maturity date of October 10th, 2056. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:11:15The aggregate $1.79 billion of these tower securities have a blended interest rate of 2.217% and a weighted average life through the anticipated repayment date of 7.8 years. Net proceeds from this offering were used to repay amounts outstanding under the revolving credit facility, and remaining proceeds will be used to redeem the entire aggregate $1.1 billion principal amount of the 2016 4.875% senior notes and to pay all premiums and costs associated with such redemption. Pro forma for these financing activities, the weighted average interest rate of our outstanding debt drops to 2.6% with a weighted average maturity of approximately five years, and the interest rate on 97% of our outstanding debt is fixed. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:12:07During the third quarter, we repurchased approximately 440,000 shares of our common stock for $150 million at an average price per share of $340.70. Subsequent to September 13th, we repurchased an additional 601,000 shares for $200 million at an average price per share of $332.72. Combined, the average purchase price for the $350 million repurchases was $336.09 per share. All the shares repurchased were retired. After these repurchases, we had $125 million of repurchase authorization remaining under our subsequently replaced $1 billion stock repurchase plan. On October 28th, the company's board of directors authorized a new $1 billion stock repurchase plan, replacing the prior plan. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:13:04The new plan has no time deadline and will continue until otherwise modified or terminated by the company's board of directors at any time in its sole discretion. As of today, the company has the full $1 billion of authorization remaining under the new plan. The company shares outstanding at September 30th, 2021, were 109.5 million, compared to 111.4 million at September 30th, 2020, a reduction of 1.8%. In addition, during the quarter, we declared and paid a cash dividend of $63.6 million or $0.58 per share. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:13:45Today, we announced that our board of directors declared a fourth quarter dividend of $0.58 per share, payable on December 16th, 2021 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 18th, 2021. Today's dividend announcement represents a payout ratio of 21% of third quarter AFFO per share, which leaves us ample room for material future dividend growth. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Jeff. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:14:14Thanks, Mark, and good evening, everyone. We had another very good quarter in the third quarter, exceeding our own expectations. As you have heard, we continue to see very high levels of carrier activity in our U.S. business. Each of our major customers was busy in the quarter, Verizon beginning their C-band deployments, T-Mobile continuing their ubiquitous deployment of their 600 MHz and 2.5 GHz spectrum, Dish continuing their torrid pace from the second quarter, signing up new agreements to facilitate the build-out of their brand-new nationwide 5G network, and AT&T remaining steady. Notwithstanding the high levels of new leasing revenue that we signed up during the third quarter, we still finished the quarter at a new multiyear high backlog of pending leases and amendment applications. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:15:04Based on this backlog and conversations with our customers, we expect to continue seeing elevated domestic leasing activities through the balance of this year and well into 2022. In addition to high domestic leasing activity levels, we produced record services revenue in the third quarter, surpassing our second quarter record. Our customers are all focused on building out their 5G networks, particularly targeting upgrades to their macro networks. Similar to our domestic leasing backlogs, our services backlogs continued to grow during the quarter and reached a new all-time high for the company at quarter end. The strong third quarter performance and growing backlogs have allowed us to increase our full-year outlook for all revenue-related line items. Internationally, we began to see our markets starting to return to pre-pandemic levels of activity. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:15:56We again produced quarter-over-quarter sequential increases in new lease and amendment executions and ended up with solid leasing results in the third quarter that were ahead of plan. During the quarter, we signed up 55% of new international revenue through new leases and 45% through amendments to existing leases. Our largest contributors to our leasing results came from Brazil and South Africa, our two largest international markets. As our international markets continue to recover from the pandemic, and upcoming spectrum auctions across a number of our markets are planned, including Brazil, which will put more spectrum into the hands of our customers, we expect to continue to see growth in the level of network investment made by our carrier customers over the next several years. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:16:45We executed very well for our customers in the quarter, and we are committed to continue to do so during these future expected periods of increased demand. In addition to our strong third quarter operating results, we continue to improve our positioning with regard to our balance sheet and returning capital to our shareholders. During the third quarter, we increased the size of all of our revolving credit facility, extended the term, and improved the pricing. Subsequent to quarter end, we completed a new $1.79 billion securitization financing, refinancing some existing securitization debt, and using the remaining proceeds to shortly repay our $1.1 billion of 4.875% 2024 unsecured notes. The weighted average interest rate of these new securities is 2.2%, and the weighted average term is 7.8 years. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:17:40The net result of these financing activities will be annual cash interest savings of approximately $35 million. This financing was a particularly positive outcome for SBA, as we also achieved the highest debt capacity in our long history of ABS financing. As Mark mentioned earlier, our pro forma weighted average interest rate across all of our debt dropped to 2.6%, our lowest ever, and we ended the quarter at 7.2x net debt to annualized adjusted EBITDA, well in the middle of our target range of 7-7.5x. Our ability to continue to drive our liquidity position higher, lower our cost of debt, and extend out our maturity dates. Gives us great flexibility in operating the business and allocating capital into additional investments for the benefit of our shareholders. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:18:33The combination of low-cost debt and our expectations around future AFFO per share growth should make stock repurchases at the levels we have been buying very accretive to future AFFO per share. During the quarter, we continued to add to our portfolio through both building and acquiring new sites. We also signed up agreements to purchase additional sites and anticipate closing on the majority of our Tanzania transaction by year-end. In addition to portfolio growth, we continue to opportunistically buy back stock, repurchasing over 1 million shares since our last earnings call, and our announced fourth quarter dividend represents an increase of 25% over the dividend paid in the fourth quarter of last year. We feel very good about our current capital structure and ability to allocate capital to generate incremental value for our shareholders. We're in a very good time for the industry and for SBA specifically. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:19:31Our customers are very busy, our financial position is very strong, and the future continues to hold many opportunities for us. We're excited about pursuing those opportunities, and I wanna thank our team members and our customers for their commitment and their contributions to our success. I look forward to sharing our year-end results with you next quarter. With that, Ryan, we are now ready for questions. Operator00:20:03Our first question will come from the line of Ric Prentiss with Raymond James. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:20:10Yes. Good evening, everyone. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:20:12Hey, Ric. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:20:14Hey. A couple questions. Obviously, you guys are pretty excited with the backlog, services business, leasing business. If I look specifically at the implied change to new lease amending activity in the fourth quarter in the U.S., it looks like a pretty nice step up. How should we think about it? I know you're not giving guidance yet, but how should we think about how that plays into 2022 as far as does it build throughout 2022? Is it fairly level loaded now that we're sitting here in November? You probably have some pretty good visibility into what the pacing of 2022 looks like, not the actual number. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:20:49Well, I mean, given the fact that we report those things on a trailing 12 basis and knowing what we had in the fourth quarter a year ago and first quarter this year, I think it's gonna build, Ric, as we at least as we move into the middle of next year. Then we'll see, you know, what happens with lease-up then because then we'll start to have some year-over-year comps that, you know, we're gonna be working off some pretty good numbers for the back half of this year. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:21:20Mm-hmm. Okay. On the escalator side, is there anything that varies the escalators quarter to quarter that causes any swings or the way you guys had your contract set up? We've seen some bouncing around some of the other tower guys in the U.S., specifically where you have more fixed. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:21:37Not in the U.S. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:21:40Right. It's fairly consistent, obviously, 3 point maybe 3%, 3.2 something %. Pretty consistent. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:21:47Yeah. Again, in the U.S. I mean, you know, Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:21:49Right Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:21:49... a lot of our international stuff is CPI-based. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:21:54Makes sense. Last one for me. Appreciate you taking the question. Can you update us on Sprint churn, what kind of magnitude you're looking at? Have you gotten any indication yet from T-Mobile? Is it mostly gonna just be the co-located sites? Is it the nearby sites? Just kind of maybe frame for us size and timing and kind of how you're having those discussions with T-Mobile and Sprint. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:22:19Yeah. Hey, Ric, it's Brendan. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:22:21Yeah. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:22:21First of all, you may have noticed in our bridge that we made an adjustment to actually reduce our domestic churn impact for 2021. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:22:29Mm-hmm. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:22:30That's basically all due to Sprint. It's a timing issue, though. You know, it's taking them perhaps a little bit longer than we were anticipating because we're making some estimates obviously around that heading into it. That doesn't change our view on the total potential exposure for churn, but it shifts the timing back just slightly. I would expect that to kind of move to next year. In terms of what we expect today, you know, we've given some ranges in the past, and I'll kind of reiterate that. They move a little bit obviously as we learn more about it. This year in 2021, we would expect the total impact to end up being somewhere around $7 million. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:23:11Next year is a higher year for us based on the timing of when leases hit the end of their terms. We expect it to be probably at the higher end of our previously stated range of $30 million-$35 million. I'd say it's closer to 35, mostly because of the shift in timing I just mentioned. In 2023 and 2024, we would estimate somewhere in the $10 million-$20 million range for impact in each of those years. Our biggest years of exposure are 2025 and 2026, where the range would be somewhere in that $45 million-ish range, $40 million-$50 million, say, to put brackets around it for each of those years. Then some de minimis amounts after that. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:23:55In terms of where it's coming from, you know, a lot of it is on overlap sites, but some of it is certainly on sites that are proximity sites. In some cases, you know, it's not always totally clear to us. I think they're still working through that. We don't have total, you know, vision on what they're doing with other neighboring sites, but I would say it's a mix of the two. Obviously the greatest focus as it relates to our portfolio would be the sites where they have direct overlap. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:24:24Great. That's very helpful. I hope you guys continue to stay well and your employees stay well. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:24:28Thank you. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:24:29Thanks, Ric. Operator00:24:31Our next question will come from the line of Simon Flannery with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Simon FlanneryManaging Director at Morgan Stanley00:24:38Thank you. Good afternoon. You talked about the strong leasing and that Dish had this torrid pace. Can you help us understand how the bookings to billings will go? Are we seeing much of Dish in the fourth quarter guide or the new revised full year guide, or is that really gonna flow through more in 2022? You talked about the benefits of recent spectrum auctions or ongoing spectrum auctions, I guess, in here and in Brazil and elsewhere. Maybe on the 3.45, specifically in the U.S., do you think that's gonna create much incremental leasing, or do you think a lot of that can be encompassed by the carriers in their C-band deployments? Any sense of when you might start to see that 3.45 get deployed? Simon FlanneryManaging Director at Morgan Stanley00:25:24Could it pull forward some of that second phase of C-band builds to put up this spectrum? Thanks. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:25:31Our understanding, Simon, on your last question is that the 3.45 will require new radios, so there will be some incremental activity there that the industry should benefit from. What was your first question? Simon FlanneryManaging Director at Morgan Stanley00:25:49Yeah, Dish timing of revenue recognition. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:25:51Oh, Dish. Yeah. I think we've explained this before. But you know, we have a master deal with Dish, and there's commitments and a lot of benefits going back and forth between each parties. I mean, one of the things, Simon, that was in there is Dish has a payments schedule such that after signing, they have until a date certain for installation of their equipment on that site before we begin to start collecting revenue. The vast majority, notwithstanding the tremendous amount of lease ups that we've had, doesn't start until 2022. The answer as to is there much of anything of Dish in the fourth quarter, notwithstanding the activity, is no. I think you had a third question. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:26:48Did I miss? Simon FlanneryManaging Director at Morgan Stanley00:26:49Well, that was on the 3.45, and any sense on the timing of when that you might start to see that deployment relative to the C-band? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:26:57Well, I mean, my understanding is, decisions get made, final auction results are known and decisions get made in the first quarter of next year. I do not believe there's the same clearing requirements that you have with the C-band. I don't see any reason why we wouldn't start to see some activity in the second half. Simon FlanneryManaging Director at Morgan Stanley00:27:25Great. Well, thanks a lot. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:27:29Thank you. Thank you. Operator00:27:31Our next question will come from the line of Jon Atkin with RBC. Please go ahead. Jonathan AtkinManaging Director at RBC Capital Markets00:27:37Yeah. I had a question about international exposure and basically EMEA and maybe tackle Europe and Africa separately, thoughts on you know how those regions might be appealing to you going forward. Domestically, wanted to find out about the timing of revenue. You talked about Dish, but more generally as you think about the availability of workforce and people to actually construct sites, what you're thinking with respect to any pressures that the industry might see in 2022 that might affect leasing revenue recognition as opposed to just bookings. Thank you. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:28:20Yeah, in terms of the globe, Jonathan, I mean, we look all over, and we look to find areas that, you know, fit our criteria. We found a lot of that obviously in the Western Hemisphere, some of that in Africa. I believe we will continue to find those opportunities as we go forward on a country-by-country basis. You know, Africa has a lot of growth, certainly has some risk. If you get in at the right price and you operate well, as we believe we do, you will do well. Europe is a fine market. We just have not found opportunities that are at prices that we think make sense for us, given our other opportunities to deploy capital. We keep looking. I mean, we look at everything. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:29:19That's what people expect us to do. In terms of the labor market, you know, we watch that carefully because obviously a lot of other industries are suffering right now. We are not. We have a large internal workforce of crews. We also use outsourced crews for some of the work. Right now it's all working out okay. There's a number of training resources and opportunities that we think will increase the available workforce over the next several years. I think, you know, I think generally we feel okay, but I mean, that's really a quarter-by-quarter question that you asked. The best I can tell you today is this quarter, next quarter, we feel okay. Jonathan AtkinManaging Director at RBC Capital Markets00:30:10Great. Thank you very much. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:30:11Mm-hmm. Operator00:30:14Our next question comes from the line of Walter Piecyk with LightShed. Please go ahead. Walter PiecykPartner and TMT Analyst at LightShed Partners00:30:23Hey, Jeff. Can you, to the extent you can, provide us a little bit more color about the Sprint, like the churn delay, I guess? I mean, is there any indication that as it goes through the portfolio, they're recognizing that maybe they're not gonna turn off as many sites as originally. I know you talked about the next two years, and they were generally all in the same ballpark. Qualitatively, are they still, I think, targeting overall the same amount, maybe more, maybe less? Any thoughts on that? Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:30:57Well, hey, Walt, this is Brendan. It seems like thus far from what we've seen in our communications with them, that it's generally still targeting the same thing that we thought originally, more or less. You know, I think the shift here is really just the timing on moving off of some of the sites. You may have even seen they talked about some delay in shutting down the CDMA network. You know, I think that probably is a factor in it. I don't think that the overall focus is shifting at all, but the timing might be slightly different, that's all. Walter PiecykPartner and TMT Analyst at LightShed Partners00:31:34Okay. On the inorganic stuff, this year was a pretty big year, although it seems like with the guidance Q4 is, you know, whatever, you know, you're still obviously up versus last year. When you think about 2022 in terms of, you know, new sites, M&A, that type of stuff, any sense in kind of what that market will look like for you? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:31:57I think it will continue to look challenging from an acquisition perspective really based on price, Walter. Prices continue to remain high and in our opinion, without much differentiation for quality, which is where we end up you know being very selective and picking our spots carefully. You know, I do think there's enough out there for us to certainly hit the low end of our historical targeted range of about 5% portfolio growth. I imagine with Tanzania and some increased activity that we expect in some of our existing markets that we will build more towers next year as well. All in all, you know, the 5%-10% portfolio growth will be the goal again next year. Walter PiecykPartner and TMT Analyst at LightShed Partners00:32:55Got it. Thank you. Operator00:32:59Our next question comes from the line of Batya Levi with UBS. Please go ahead. Batya LeviManaging Director and Communications, Media & Infrastructure Analyst at UBS00:33:05Great. Thank you. Just couple follow-ups. First, on the international side, you mentioned that churn should remain elevated for some time. Can you provide more color on that? On capital allocation priorities, can you help us think about maybe discretionary CapEx excluding M&A? Does that stay elevated as you ramp maybe augmentation CapEx to support higher growth? Yeah. That's it. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:33:35Okay. Yeah. On the international churn, you know, we've been, as you've probably seen, and we talked about, I think, on previous calls, that we expected some elevated international churn this year. We haven't experienced most of that yet through the year, but in the fourth quarter, we expect to see that jump largely due, the primary reason is due to consolidation-related churn, particularly with Claro and Telefónica combining in Guatemala. A lot of the impacts of that are starting to be felt here in the fourth quarter, which is what's gonna drive, you know, the full year number that we provided. Obviously, with it being so late in the year, it has an impact on, you know, what we would expect to report, not just in the fourth quarter, but in the next, into next year. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:34:26In addition, you know, we are dealing with a number of our customers in Central America. We have some that are working through network changes due to various issues that they face, and others where the terms of the agreements are starting to come to an end and we're working through what their future plans might look like. You know, we expect there might be some incremental churn associated with that, but we also would expect longer term commitments and other business commitments as well as part of that. It really was an indication mostly, though, about the consolidation churn that we're gonna experience in Q4. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:35:04Batya, on your other question about discretionary CapEx, the way you asked that question, you implied that our non-M&A discretionary CapEx was going up. I don't really think it is in terms of augmentations per tower. I mean, we don't really see anything material there. Keep in mind, there's a historical practice which continues that our customers tend to pay most, if not all, of those augmentation dollars. Would there be something else besides the tower side, Brendan, in the discretionary CapEx? Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:35:40There's been some CapEx spent on the data centers that we acquired. That might be the incremental piece that we obviously hadn't had in the past. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:35:52Yeah. That, just to be clear, that's in response to demand for increased megawattage and capacity at these data centers. That is CapEx that we're extremely pleased to be able to invest. Batya LeviManaging Director and Communications, Media & Infrastructure Analyst at UBS00:36:06Got it. Thank you. Operator00:36:11Next, we'll go to the line of Nick Del Deo, MoffettNathanson. Please go ahead. Nick Del DeoManaging Director at MoffettNathanson00:36:16Hey, thanks for taking my questions. You know, first, if my math is right, it looks like your implied site leasing revenue and tower cash flow guidance for Q4 are about equal to what you generated in Q3, at least at the midpoints. Was there anything that helped Q3 results that won't carry through into Q4, like back billings or anything similar? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:36:35Well, FX. Nick Del DeoManaging Director at MoffettNathanson00:36:39Okay. All right. Simple enough. I guess, you know, in terms of, you know, U.S. activity, are you seeing the incumbents deploy their mid-band spectrum and Dish with its de novo build, you know, kind of engaging with you evenly. You know, relatively evenly across your portfolio? Or is there a noticeable skew towards, you know, more urban or the denser suburban markets that you serve? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:37:04I don't think it's noticeably skewed. I think we're seeing activity pretty much everywhere. Nick Del DeoManaging Director at MoffettNathanson00:37:14Okay. That's good to hear. Hey, you know, if I can squeeze in one last one. If I look at other revenue for international, that was up by about $6 million versus your prior guidance. Is that mostly fuel pass-through fuel or something else going on there? Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:37:29No, it is mostly pass-through expenses. It's actually a lot of it is actually related to ground leases in particular in Brazil, where we pass those through to the carriers. That part of that is CPI. While we projected CPI increases across our tenant leases, we didn't necessarily include that on the ground leases because it's a pass-through. As that's starting to come along with the increased inflation down there, it's pushing ground rents higher, which obviously pushes the pass-through rents higher as well. Plus, there is some power costs, as you mentioned as well. That's the main driver. Nick Del DeoManaging Director at MoffettNathanson00:38:08Okay. Got it. Thank you guys. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:38:10Sure. Operator00:38:14Next, we're going to the line of Philip Cusick with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead. Philip CusickCFO at Tillman FiberCo00:38:21Hi. Thanks, guys. I wanted to follow up. You said, I think in the prepared remarks, that you assume that AT&T is steady from here. Do you think AT&T is at a full run rate, or you're just assuming that they haven't ramped up by the fourth quarter guidance period? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:38:35No, I think to be clear, Phil, we said that they were steady relative to kinda last quarter. I believe that they will ramp up in the times to come. Philip CusickCFO at Tillman FiberCo00:38:49Okay. Is the conversation building toward that already? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:38:55Levy, I'll just leave it the way I said it. I believe that their activity levels will ramp as we move into next year. Philip CusickCFO at Tillman FiberCo00:39:05That's more than I expected. Thanks, Jeff. Operator00:39:15Next, we'll go to the line of David Barden with Bank of America. Please go ahead. David BardenPartner at New Street Research00:39:21I don't know, I can follow up on that belly laugh, Jeff. I guess I had two questions. One was, in the prepared remarks, Brendan, you called out the big four, which we haven't heard in a while. It made me wonder if the magnitude to which Dish is spending is roughly on par with what the actual big three are spending in terms of your business. The second question I had was, you also referenced, you know, some spectrum auctions that are happening in the coming months in not just domestic, but international markets. Specifically, I'm interested in South Africa. That's been a problem market from a spectrum perspective. You know, a little messy over the last little while. David BardenPartner at New Street Research00:40:18I was wondering if you could kind of give us some picture as to what you thought the outlook would be, for South Africa spectrum auctions in 2022. Thanks. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:40:28Yeah, I mean, when you really parse out our comments, David, and you look at the domestic split between leasing and amendments, and you think about historically how networks get upgraded mostly through amendments. Where are all those new leases coming from? Well, they're mostly coming from Dish. Yeah, for this quarter and last quarter, they're right up there in terms of quarterly contributions with the other big three. That's why we said what we said. In terms of South Africa, you know, those spectrum auctions have been pushed back a little bit. There's a lot of interplay between the wireless carriers and the government. The best that we can tell is that the auctions will be not this year, but in 2022. Right now, they're scheduled for the first half. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:41:30They will be the full suite of, you know, 5G spectrum. I think it's 600 or 700 rather, 2.5 and 3.5. So you're gonna have all the tools necessary for the carriers in that country to pick up what they need to move into 5G. So obviously, we're excited about that. It will mean similar to what it means in the U.S. when customers move from 4G to 5G. David BardenPartner at New Street Research00:42:01Perfect. That was exactly what I thought you would say, Jeff. Just for the record. Thank you. Operator00:42:10Our next question will come from the line of Michael Rollins with Citi. Please go ahead. Michael RollinsManaging Director at Citi00:42:16Since you seem to be in such a generous mood to share some new information, I take a crack at this. So you mentioned multi-year ties for services and leasing backlog. I was thinking back to your 10-Ks, where in 2019 you had a leasing backlog of about $22 million. In 2018, you had about $16 million. On the services side, it was about, over those two years, $55 million and $76 million. Can you share some context on how the current backlog compares to these couple of years? Then just secondly, curious if you could delve further into what you're learning from your data centers and how you're thinking about the edge and the role SBA is gonna play in that in the future. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:43:07Yeah. The 10-K disclosures, Mike, are apples and oranges to what we were talking about in our earnings script and the press release. That disclosure is signed leases that have not yet commenced revenue. When we talk about backlog, it's applications. So those two things really are not correlated. But I'll give you a little more color on the backlogs. It's not multi-year high for services, it's all-time high ever. For leasing, it is a multi-year high, going back probably to you know the heady 4G days. But it's good, and it took a big jump up in the quarter notwithstanding a very high degree of signings. That's why we say what we said and why we feel good about next year. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:44:13What was your second question? Michael RollinsManaging Director at Citi00:44:16Oh, what you're learning from the data centers and the edge. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:44:19What we're learning is that it's generally a good business, data centers in general, not that anybody needs me to tell them that. But one that we like and we see synergies with the micro edge facilities, where we have now, we've got four or five of these things, more being built. In many cases, the sale was made because we were able to provide data center space in addition to the micro edge space. There's a big demand for redundancy, for disaster recovery, for backup. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:45:04The hub and spoke model that we talked about earlier as to, you know, where we think this makes the most sense from our perspective is playing out, albeit a little bit slowly because I'm not sure the edge has really quite moved yet to the tower site, but it is headed in that direction. Michael RollinsManaging Director at Citi00:45:25Where do you think this goes over time? Are towers partners to data centers? Are towers owners of a lot more data centers? Where does this evolve into? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:45:38It could evolve in either of those directions, but it does evolve into a more converged universe. I think ultimately the degree of that convergence, Mike, will be how much computing power is truly needed right at the cell site. I don't think we know yet. Michael RollinsManaging Director at Citi00:46:02Thanks. Operator00:46:07Our next question will come from the line of Brett Feldman with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Brett FeldmanSVP - Treasurer and Investor Relations at AT&T00:46:14Thanks. I guess I'll have a follow-up on that one. I mean, we know your historical views on investing in fiber in the U.S., but if you were to start to see real synergy between the connectivity between, you know, your data center assets and the edge facilities you can offer at sites, would you maybe reconsider deploying the fiber between those locations? Just a second question. I would imagine the big uptick in the backlog is from what we're gonna start calling the Big Four again. I'm curious whether you're seeing anything in there from non-traditional tenants, maybe enterprises looking to deploy CBRS based systems using your infrastructure. If it's not in the backlog, is there anything going on from a conversation standpoint to suggest that could be percolating? Thank you. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:46:59On your first question, it could make sense where we control both ends of the destination to have fiber running between that we actually own. We do think over time, Brett, that a full suite of product offerings and solutions to the customer will be good. I mean, it's hard to sell someone. It's not as easy, rather, to sell someone micro edge space when at the same time you say, "Well, you gotta go find your own fiber." You know, we'll see and you know, never say never. I don't think the way fiber has been traditionally you know, bought, developed, and deployed. That's a business I don't know that we would enter. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:47:55It's going to be more when it joins two ends of things that we control. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:48:04Yeah. In terms of the non-traditional tenants in the backlog, there are some certainly, Brett, but as a percentage of the total backlog, it's pretty small. You know, partially because the big carriers are so active right now that we have huge backlogs with them, it's pretty immaterial in terms of its overall impact. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:48:28Yeah. There, there's some in there. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:48:31Yeah. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:48:31It's, I mean, the lion's share is clearly from the Big Four. Brett FeldmanSVP - Treasurer and Investor Relations at AT&T00:48:35Great. Thank you. Operator00:48:40Our next question comes from the line of Colby Synesael with Cowen. Please go ahead, your line is open. Colby SynesaelInvestment Banking at TD Securities00:48:47Great. Thank you. One quick follow-up and then another one. As it relates to the international churn you've highlighted, you expect it to be elevated in the fourth quarter. Is that just a one-quarter thing, or would you anticipate churn being elevated in 2022 versus what we'll ultimately see in 2021? Secondly, in the press release, you guys mentioned, I think this was quoted to Jeff, "We expect elevated domestic leasing activities to continue through 2022, and perhaps beyond." I was wondering if you could just expand on that. Is that really just tied to some of the comments you've already made, as it relates to Dish, or is it really more than that? Colby SynesaelInvestment Banking at TD Securities00:49:25Maybe even how does AT&T in particular factor into that? Thank you. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:49:29Yeah. On the churn, on the international churn side, I do expect it to be elevated not only in the fourth quarter but into next year, in part because the fourth quarter, you know, especially when we report our same tower churn numbers, it's obviously on a trailing 12-month basis, so what happens in Q4 will be carried with us throughout the balance of the year. Next year will certainly be higher, in terms of its full year impact than this year, because of the concentration late in the year. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:50:05Yeah. On the length of the activity, Colby, comments really reflect just the historical norms of the life cycle of a G upgrade going from one G to the next. I mean, when you think about where Verizon is and where AT&T is on C-band, the 3.45 stuff that's not even out yet, and where Dish is, I mean, it's pretty easy to see that activity's gonna move into 2023. Colby SynesaelInvestment Banking at TD Securities00:50:35Do you think then that we could actually be in a situation where we just continue to see that acceleration? Yeah, I think one of the big debates that investors are having now is, do we start to flatline in 2022 or you know is there an opportunity for another step up? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:50:52I mean, at some point it has to flat line. I don't know specifically how to answer that question for next year until we see more about the 3.45 auction and understand some more of the timing. I think, you know, flat line or not, I understand the importance of that from an investor perspective. I mean, we see years of elevated activity. Colby SynesaelInvestment Banking at TD Securities00:51:18Great. Thank you. Operator00:51:21Our next question will come from the line of Eric Luebchow with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead. Eric LuebchowDirector and Senior Equity Analyst at Wells Fargo00:51:28Great. Thanks for taking the question. Just curious on Brazil, if you could maybe provide us some color. You mentioned that same tower growth stepped up there in the quarter, and there's a spectrum auction coming up later this week. Do you think that could, you know, drive another wave of amendment activity across the Brazilian market? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:51:46Yeah, I clearly do because the spectrum that's being put forth is what's really necessary for the carriers to offer a 5G solution, which they have not yet really embarked on. Much like what's gone on here in the U.S., when that spectrum is auctioned and put into use, you're going to have similar activity levels. In terms of the... Do you wanna speak, Brendan, to the increased lease up? Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:52:18Yeah. I mean, the growth rate stepped up. It's really a combination of two things. One is the escalators are higher because of the CPI-based increases. As inflation has increased in Brazil, that's caused our escalators to be increasing. We have in addition seen increased actual leasing activity over the last two quarters, where it's sequentially increased over what it had been at the beginning of the year. I think really as we come out of some of the more serious COVID-related periods in Brazil, we're starting to see the carriers moving back more towards traditional spending levels. That's encouraging as well. Eric LuebchowDirector and Senior Equity Analyst at Wells Fargo00:53:00Great. Thanks. Just one follow-up from me. You mentioned building more towers next year. Just could you remind us which markets you're seeing build-to-suit opportunities in? And perhaps like what you're kind of underwriting today for return or yield requirements for building new sites in terms of an NOI or development yield? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:53:18We will build sites next year in every market in which we are currently active, and in most of those markets, more sites than we built today. We're looking at, you know, generally, 10%-ish tower cash flow yield on day one. Eric LuebchowDirector and Senior Equity Analyst at Wells Fargo00:53:42Got it. That includes the U.S., where new builds have been fairly slow the last few years? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:53:47Yes. It does. Eric LuebchowDirector and Senior Equity Analyst at Wells Fargo00:53:50Okay. Thank you. Operator00:53:56Our next question will come from the line of David Guarino with Green Street. Please go ahead. David GuarinoHead of Global Data Center and Tower Research at Green Street00:54:02Thanks. I was wondering if you could provide any updates on Oi. Specifically I was wondering if you have any updates on the land underlying the, I think it was around 2,000 sites in Brazil that are up for renewal in 2025. Feels like there's a lot of moving pieces, so just trying to understand if there's any risk of lost revenues from those sites. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:54:21Yeah. Now you're talking about the concession sites I think from the acquisition that we did? David GuarinoHead of Global Data Center and Tower Research at Green Street00:54:26Correct. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:54:26Yeah. No, there's really not, and we expect that those will actually be continued on. Actually those leases extend out, I believe, longer than that with us as a commitment from Oi that goes out beyond those dates as well. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:54:40To 2035, I believe. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:54:42Yeah. That's right. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:54:44That transaction is supposed, now the latest thinking is that it doesn't get consummated until sometime next year. With the network rationalization aspects that come out of that not starting until sometime in 2023. David GuarinoHead of Global Data Center and Tower Research at Green Street00:55:05Okay. Maybe switching gears then. Going back to, you know, an earlier question about you guys talking about Dish as part of the big four carriers, does that mean that you're gonna update your customer concentration table, to reflect Dish once the revenue starts commencing on the tower sites? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:55:21Sure. Yeah, of course. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:55:24Great. Yeah. I mean, once they reach a level. I mean, that we're giving the concentrations above 10% of revenue. Obviously, they'd have to achieve that. Their contributions to leasing activity are significant and on par with the other carriers now. Obviously the total sum of revenue, considering they're starting at zero, is at a much lower percentage. We ultimately will do that if they achieve that level of contribution. David GuarinoHead of Global Data Center and Tower Research at Green Street00:55:52Great. Thanks for taking the question. Operator00:55:57Our final question in queue at this time comes from the line of Brandon Nispel with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Brandon NispelDirector and Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets00:56:06Great. Two questions. One, could you comment just on leasing of PG&E assets? Any additional comments you could provide there? I don't think anybody asked. On the balance sheet, I think you guys called out blended interest costs of 2.25% or so, and then some incremental run rate savings. What else is to be done there going forward? Do you guys see interest expense coming down? Thanks. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:56:33PG&E is ahead of plan, benefiting from all of the U.S. activity from all the contributors that we earlier discussed in general, so we're extremely pleased with that. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:56:50On the balance sheet, just to correct what you said, the average interest rate is now on a pro forma basis, 2.6%. There are, you know, potentially some other possibilities. We obviously have maturity dates that come up over the next several years. Really we'll have to see where interest rates are as we hit those dates. There's probably some opportunity to refinance and have some additional improvement. I think we've done the vast majority of that now with the last deal that we just completed this past month. Brandon NispelDirector and Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets00:57:27Great. Thank you. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:57:29Brian, is that it or is there another question? Operator00:57:32We have no further questions in queue. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:57:35Great. Well, thank you everyone for joining us this evening, and we look forward to reporting our fourth quarter sometime in February. Have a great night.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesBrendan CavanaghPresident and CEOJeff StoopsChairman of the BoardMark DeRussyVP of FinanceAnalystsBatya LeviManaging Director and Communications, Media & Infrastructure Analyst at UBSBrandon NispelDirector and Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital MarketsBrett FeldmanSVP - Treasurer and Investor Relations at AT&TColby SynesaelInvestment Banking at TD SecuritiesDavid BardenPartner at New Street ResearchDavid GuarinoHead of Global Data Center and Tower Research at Green StreetEric LuebchowDirector and Senior Equity Analyst at Wells FargoJonathan AtkinManaging Director at RBC Capital MarketsMichael RollinsManaging Director at CitiNick Del DeoManaging Director at MoffettNathansonPhilip CusickCFO at Tillman FiberCoRic PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond JamesSimon FlanneryManaging Director at Morgan StanleyWalter PiecykPartner and TMT Analyst at LightShed PartnersPowered by Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) SBA Communications Earnings HeadlinesIs SBA Communications Stock Underperforming the Dow?2 hours ago | finance.yahoo.comSBA Communications falls on the report take-private process is deadJune 15 at 4:41 PM | msn.comDo NOT Buy SpaceX – Do This InsteadSpaceX just went public - and Whitney Tilson, Harvard MBA and 30-year Wall Street veteran, says buying in could be a costly mistake. He calls it among the most overhyped, overvalued large-cap offerings ever pushed onto everyday investors. Tilson believes a rare economic event is approaching - one with serious consequences for your portfolio this summer. He has prepared a free analysis outlining what he sees and the specific steps he recommends taking now.June 16 at 1:00 AM | Stansberry Research (Ad)SBA Communications (SBAC) slides as tower stocks face renewed carrier-credit concernsJune 15 at 12:11 PM | quiverquant.comQIs SBA Communications Stock Underperforming the Dow?June 15 at 7:11 AM | barchart.comSBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) Given Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by BrokeragesJune 11, 2026 | americanbankingnews.comSee More SBA Communications Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like SBA Communications? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on SBA Communications and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About SBA CommunicationsSBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC) (NASDAQ: SBAC) is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates and develops wireless communications infrastructure. Its core business is the leasing of space on communications towers, rooftop sites and other wireless structures to mobile network operators, broadband providers and other wireless service customers. The company also provides site development, construction and ongoing site management services to support the deployment and operation of wireless networks. In addition to traditional macro towers, SBA offers a range of infrastructure solutions designed for dense urban and suburban markets, including small cells, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and fiber backhaul and transport services. These offerings enable customers to densify their networks, expand capacity and improve coverage for voice, data and emerging wireless services. SBA’s revenue model centers on long-term site leases and colocation agreements that allow multiple tenants to use the same physical assets. SBA operates across multiple geographies, with a significant presence in the United States and operations in other regions of the Americas and select international markets. The company supports mobile carriers, wireless internet providers and enterprise users by providing critical real estate and technical services needed to scale wireless networks for technologies such as 4G LTE and 5G. SBA’s footprint is built through a combination of organic site development and strategic acquisitions. Founded in 1989, SBA has grown into one of the larger independent owners and operators of wireless communications infrastructure and is publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker SBAC. The company emphasizes long-term contractual relationships with network operators and continued investment in infrastructure to support evolving wireless demand. Information on specific executives and recent corporate developments should be confirmed from SBA’s filings and investor communications for the latest details.View SBA Communications ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Latest Articles Okta’s AI Moment May Be Bigger Than Investors RealizeStrategy’s Bitcoin Rally Has a Hidden EngineIs Lennar Finally Turning the Corner After Its Housing Slump?Can D-Wave Hold Its Own Against 2 Fast-Growing Rivals?This Golden Cross Could Send Urban Outfitters to New Highs3 Dividend Increases Investors Can Actually TrustRH’s Strong Q1 Still Leaves Investors With One Big Question Upcoming Earnings Accenture (6/18/2026)FedEx (6/23/2026)Micron Technology (6/24/2026)NIKE (6/30/2026)PepsiCo (7/9/2026)Delta Air Lines (7/9/2026)Fastenal (7/13/2026)Bank of America (7/14/2026)The Goldman Sachs Group (7/14/2026)JPMorgan Chase & Co. 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PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the third quarter results for SBA. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will have a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to queue up for a question, you can press one then zero at any time during today's call. If you need assistance during the call, please press star then zero. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Vice President of Finance, Mark DeRussy. Please go ahead. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:00:32Good evening, and thank you for joining us for SBA's third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. Here with me today are Jeff Stoops, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Brendan Cavanagh, our Chief Financial Officer. Some of the information we will discuss on this call is forward-looking, including, but not limited to, any guidance for 2021 and beyond. In today's press release and in our SEC filings, we detail material risks that may cause our future results to differ from our expectations. Our statements are as of today, November 1st, and we have no obligation to update any forward-looking statement we may make. In addition, our comments will include non-GAAP financial measures and other key operating metrics. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:01:14The reconciliation of GAAP and other information regarding these items can be found in our supplemental financial data package, which is located on the landing page of our investor relations website. With that, I will now turn it over to Brendan to discuss our third quarter results. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:01:30Thank you, Mark. Good evening. SBA had another great quarter with financial and operating results ahead of our expectations and continued strong momentum into the end of the year. Total GAAP site leasing revenues for the third quarter were $535.5 million, and cash site leasing revenues were $525.1 million. Foreign exchange rates were generally in line with our previously forecasted FX rate estimates for the quarter. They were a tailwind, though, on comparisons to the third quarter of 2020, positively impacting revenues by $3.2 million on a year-over-year basis. Same-tower recurring cash leasing revenue growth for the third quarter, which is calculated on a constant currency basis, was 3.6% over the third quarter of 2020, including the impact of 2.5% of churn. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:02:26On a gross basis, same-tower growth was 6.1%. Domestic same-tower recurring cash leasing revenue growth over the third quarter of last year was 5.7% on a gross basis and 3.3% on a net basis, including 2.4% of churn. Domestic operational leasing activity or bookings representing new revenue placed under contract during the third quarter was at a similar level to the second quarter, which had represented the highest quarterly level since 2014. Even with this high level of execution, our domestic new lease and new amendment application backlog continued to grow during the quarter and finished the quarter higher and at a new multi-year high. These backlogs support our expectations for continued strong domestic operational leasing activity throughout the balance of this year and into 2022. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:03:23During the third quarter, amendment activity represented 45% of our domestic bookings, with 55% coming from new leases. The Big Four carriers of AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Dish represented 96% of total incremental domestic leasing revenue signed up during the quarter. Internationally, on a constant currency basis, same-tower cash leasing revenue growth was 5.2% net, including 2.7% of churn or 7.9% on a gross basis. International leasing activity increased again quarter-over-quarter and was the highest in over a year. Churn grew some in the quarter as well and is anticipated to increase further as we experience the impacts of carrier consolidations and other network and contract modifications in Central America. In Brazil, our largest international market, we had another quarter of increased leasing activity. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:04:23Gross same-tower organic growth in Brazil was 9.5% on a constant currency basis. During the third quarter, 84.5% of consolidated cash site leasing revenue was denominated in US dollars. The majority of non-US dollar-denominated revenue was from Brazil, with Brazil representing 11.7% of consolidated cash site leasing revenues during the quarter and 8.4% of cash site leasing revenue excluding revenues from pass-through expenses. Tower cash flow for the third quarter was $428.1 million. Our tower cash flow margins remain very strong with a third quarter domestic tower cash flow margin of 84.6% and an international tower cash flow margin of 69.9% or 90.8% excluding the impact of pass-through reimbursable expenses. Adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter was $407 million. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:05:25The adjusted EBITDA margin was 70.3% in the quarter. Excluding the impact of revenues from pass-through expenses, adjusted EBITDA margin was 74.7%. Approximately 97% of our total adjusted EBITDA was attributable to our tower leasing business in the third quarter. During the third quarter, our services business produced record results for the second quarter in a row with $53.8 million in revenue and $12.5 million of segment operating profit. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:05:59Activity levels remained very high in the quarter, and backlogs also continued to grow, finishing the quarter at another all-time high level in our company's history. Based on our strong third quarter and a growing backlog, we have increased our full year 2021 outlook for site development revenue for the third quarter in a row, now expecting $200 million of site development revenue at the midpoint of our outlook range. AFFO in the third quarter was $302.5 million. AFFO per share was $2.71, an increase of 13.9% over the third quarter of 2020. During the third quarter, we continued to expand our portfolio, acquiring 144 communication sites for total cash consideration of $57.1 million. We also built 87 new sites in the quarter. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:06:57Subsequent to quarter end, we have purchased or are under agreement to purchase approximately 1,700 additional sites in our existing markets for an aggregate price of $231 million, including approximately 1,400 sites and approximately $175 million related to the previously announced deal to acquire towers from Airtel Tanzania. We anticipate closing on these sites under contract by the end of the second quarter of next year, and we anticipate the Airtel Tanzania transaction to close in stages starting in the fourth quarter of this year. Consistent with our prior outlook, our updated 2021 outlook assumes that the Airtel acquisition closes at the end of the year, and thus we have included the entire purchase price in our outlook for discretionary capital expenditures, but we have included no revenue or tower cash flow associated with these assets. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:07:52In addition to new tower assets, we also continue to invest in the land under our sites. During the quarter, we spent an aggregate of $11.6 million to buy land and easements and to extend ground lease terms. At the end of the quarter, we owned or controlled for more than 20 years the land underneath approximately 72% of our towers. The average remaining life under our ground leases, including renewal options under our control, is approximately 37 years. In this afternoon's earnings press release, we included our updated outlook for full year 2021. Notwithstanding our assumption of weaker fourth quarter foreign exchange rates, our updated outlook includes increased expectations for site leasing revenue, site development revenue, tower cash flow, adjusted EBITDA, AFFO, and AFFO per share. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:08:42These increases result from high services activity levels with our carrier customers, anticipated timing shifts in domestic consolidation churn, reduced cash interest expense as a result of recent refinancings, and the impact of recent share repurchases. We anticipate that our strong domestic leasing bookings during the second and third quarters will be supportive of improved incremental organic domestic leasing revenue in 2022, which we will share on our fourth quarter earnings call. With that, I will now turn things over to Mark, who will provide an update on our liquidity position and balance sheet. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:09:19Thanks, Brendan. We ended the quarter with $11.9 billion of total debt and $11.7 billion of net debt. Our net debt to annualized adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio was 7.2x. Our third quarter net cash interest coverage ratio of adjusted EBITDA to net cash interest expense was 4.6x, the highest in the company's history. On July 7th, the company amended its revolving credit facility. Among other things, the amendment increased the total commitment under the facility from $1.25 billion to $1.5 billion, extended the maturity date of the facility to July 7th, 2026, lowered the applicable interest rate margins and commitment fees under the facility, and incorporated sustainability-linked targets into the facility, allowing for interest rate and commitment fee adjusted adjustments based on how we perform against those targets. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:10:15As of today, we have no amounts outstanding under our revolver. On October 14th, the company repaid at par the entire aggregate principal amount of the 2013-2C tower securities, which had an anticipated repayment date of April 11th, 2023. On October 27th, the company, through an existing trust, issued $895 million of 1.84% secured tower revenue securities series 2021-2C, which have an anticipated repayment date of April 9th, 2027, and a final maturity date of October 10th, 2051. $895 million of 2.593% secured tower revenue securities series 2021-3C, which have an anticipated repayment date of October 9th, 2031, and a final maturity date of October 10th, 2056. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:11:15The aggregate $1.79 billion of these tower securities have a blended interest rate of 2.217% and a weighted average life through the anticipated repayment date of 7.8 years. Net proceeds from this offering were used to repay amounts outstanding under the revolving credit facility, and remaining proceeds will be used to redeem the entire aggregate $1.1 billion principal amount of the 2016 4.875% senior notes and to pay all premiums and costs associated with such redemption. Pro forma for these financing activities, the weighted average interest rate of our outstanding debt drops to 2.6% with a weighted average maturity of approximately five years, and the interest rate on 97% of our outstanding debt is fixed. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:12:07During the third quarter, we repurchased approximately 440,000 shares of our common stock for $150 million at an average price per share of $340.70. Subsequent to September 13th, we repurchased an additional 601,000 shares for $200 million at an average price per share of $332.72. Combined, the average purchase price for the $350 million repurchases was $336.09 per share. All the shares repurchased were retired. After these repurchases, we had $125 million of repurchase authorization remaining under our subsequently replaced $1 billion stock repurchase plan. On October 28th, the company's board of directors authorized a new $1 billion stock repurchase plan, replacing the prior plan. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:13:04The new plan has no time deadline and will continue until otherwise modified or terminated by the company's board of directors at any time in its sole discretion. As of today, the company has the full $1 billion of authorization remaining under the new plan. The company shares outstanding at September 30th, 2021, were 109.5 million, compared to 111.4 million at September 30th, 2020, a reduction of 1.8%. In addition, during the quarter, we declared and paid a cash dividend of $63.6 million or $0.58 per share. Mark DeRussyVP of Finance at SBA Communications00:13:45Today, we announced that our board of directors declared a fourth quarter dividend of $0.58 per share, payable on December 16th, 2021 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 18th, 2021. Today's dividend announcement represents a payout ratio of 21% of third quarter AFFO per share, which leaves us ample room for material future dividend growth. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Jeff. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:14:14Thanks, Mark, and good evening, everyone. We had another very good quarter in the third quarter, exceeding our own expectations. As you have heard, we continue to see very high levels of carrier activity in our U.S. business. Each of our major customers was busy in the quarter, Verizon beginning their C-band deployments, T-Mobile continuing their ubiquitous deployment of their 600 MHz and 2.5 GHz spectrum, Dish continuing their torrid pace from the second quarter, signing up new agreements to facilitate the build-out of their brand-new nationwide 5G network, and AT&T remaining steady. Notwithstanding the high levels of new leasing revenue that we signed up during the third quarter, we still finished the quarter at a new multiyear high backlog of pending leases and amendment applications. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:15:04Based on this backlog and conversations with our customers, we expect to continue seeing elevated domestic leasing activities through the balance of this year and well into 2022. In addition to high domestic leasing activity levels, we produced record services revenue in the third quarter, surpassing our second quarter record. Our customers are all focused on building out their 5G networks, particularly targeting upgrades to their macro networks. Similar to our domestic leasing backlogs, our services backlogs continued to grow during the quarter and reached a new all-time high for the company at quarter end. The strong third quarter performance and growing backlogs have allowed us to increase our full-year outlook for all revenue-related line items. Internationally, we began to see our markets starting to return to pre-pandemic levels of activity. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:15:56We again produced quarter-over-quarter sequential increases in new lease and amendment executions and ended up with solid leasing results in the third quarter that were ahead of plan. During the quarter, we signed up 55% of new international revenue through new leases and 45% through amendments to existing leases. Our largest contributors to our leasing results came from Brazil and South Africa, our two largest international markets. As our international markets continue to recover from the pandemic, and upcoming spectrum auctions across a number of our markets are planned, including Brazil, which will put more spectrum into the hands of our customers, we expect to continue to see growth in the level of network investment made by our carrier customers over the next several years. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:16:45We executed very well for our customers in the quarter, and we are committed to continue to do so during these future expected periods of increased demand. In addition to our strong third quarter operating results, we continue to improve our positioning with regard to our balance sheet and returning capital to our shareholders. During the third quarter, we increased the size of all of our revolving credit facility, extended the term, and improved the pricing. Subsequent to quarter end, we completed a new $1.79 billion securitization financing, refinancing some existing securitization debt, and using the remaining proceeds to shortly repay our $1.1 billion of 4.875% 2024 unsecured notes. The weighted average interest rate of these new securities is 2.2%, and the weighted average term is 7.8 years. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:17:40The net result of these financing activities will be annual cash interest savings of approximately $35 million. This financing was a particularly positive outcome for SBA, as we also achieved the highest debt capacity in our long history of ABS financing. As Mark mentioned earlier, our pro forma weighted average interest rate across all of our debt dropped to 2.6%, our lowest ever, and we ended the quarter at 7.2x net debt to annualized adjusted EBITDA, well in the middle of our target range of 7-7.5x. Our ability to continue to drive our liquidity position higher, lower our cost of debt, and extend out our maturity dates. Gives us great flexibility in operating the business and allocating capital into additional investments for the benefit of our shareholders. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:18:33The combination of low-cost debt and our expectations around future AFFO per share growth should make stock repurchases at the levels we have been buying very accretive to future AFFO per share. During the quarter, we continued to add to our portfolio through both building and acquiring new sites. We also signed up agreements to purchase additional sites and anticipate closing on the majority of our Tanzania transaction by year-end. In addition to portfolio growth, we continue to opportunistically buy back stock, repurchasing over 1 million shares since our last earnings call, and our announced fourth quarter dividend represents an increase of 25% over the dividend paid in the fourth quarter of last year. We feel very good about our current capital structure and ability to allocate capital to generate incremental value for our shareholders. We're in a very good time for the industry and for SBA specifically. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:19:31Our customers are very busy, our financial position is very strong, and the future continues to hold many opportunities for us. We're excited about pursuing those opportunities, and I wanna thank our team members and our customers for their commitment and their contributions to our success. I look forward to sharing our year-end results with you next quarter. With that, Ryan, we are now ready for questions. Operator00:20:03Our first question will come from the line of Ric Prentiss with Raymond James. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:20:10Yes. Good evening, everyone. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:20:12Hey, Ric. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:20:14Hey. A couple questions. Obviously, you guys are pretty excited with the backlog, services business, leasing business. If I look specifically at the implied change to new lease amending activity in the fourth quarter in the U.S., it looks like a pretty nice step up. How should we think about it? I know you're not giving guidance yet, but how should we think about how that plays into 2022 as far as does it build throughout 2022? Is it fairly level loaded now that we're sitting here in November? You probably have some pretty good visibility into what the pacing of 2022 looks like, not the actual number. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:20:49Well, I mean, given the fact that we report those things on a trailing 12 basis and knowing what we had in the fourth quarter a year ago and first quarter this year, I think it's gonna build, Ric, as we at least as we move into the middle of next year. Then we'll see, you know, what happens with lease-up then because then we'll start to have some year-over-year comps that, you know, we're gonna be working off some pretty good numbers for the back half of this year. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:21:20Mm-hmm. Okay. On the escalator side, is there anything that varies the escalators quarter to quarter that causes any swings or the way you guys had your contract set up? We've seen some bouncing around some of the other tower guys in the U.S., specifically where you have more fixed. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:21:37Not in the U.S. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:21:40Right. It's fairly consistent, obviously, 3 point maybe 3%, 3.2 something %. Pretty consistent. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:21:47Yeah. Again, in the U.S. I mean, you know, Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:21:49Right Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:21:49... a lot of our international stuff is CPI-based. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:21:54Makes sense. Last one for me. Appreciate you taking the question. Can you update us on Sprint churn, what kind of magnitude you're looking at? Have you gotten any indication yet from T-Mobile? Is it mostly gonna just be the co-located sites? Is it the nearby sites? Just kind of maybe frame for us size and timing and kind of how you're having those discussions with T-Mobile and Sprint. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:22:19Yeah. Hey, Ric, it's Brendan. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:22:21Yeah. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:22:21First of all, you may have noticed in our bridge that we made an adjustment to actually reduce our domestic churn impact for 2021. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:22:29Mm-hmm. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:22:30That's basically all due to Sprint. It's a timing issue, though. You know, it's taking them perhaps a little bit longer than we were anticipating because we're making some estimates obviously around that heading into it. That doesn't change our view on the total potential exposure for churn, but it shifts the timing back just slightly. I would expect that to kind of move to next year. In terms of what we expect today, you know, we've given some ranges in the past, and I'll kind of reiterate that. They move a little bit obviously as we learn more about it. This year in 2021, we would expect the total impact to end up being somewhere around $7 million. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:23:11Next year is a higher year for us based on the timing of when leases hit the end of their terms. We expect it to be probably at the higher end of our previously stated range of $30 million-$35 million. I'd say it's closer to 35, mostly because of the shift in timing I just mentioned. In 2023 and 2024, we would estimate somewhere in the $10 million-$20 million range for impact in each of those years. Our biggest years of exposure are 2025 and 2026, where the range would be somewhere in that $45 million-ish range, $40 million-$50 million, say, to put brackets around it for each of those years. Then some de minimis amounts after that. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:23:55In terms of where it's coming from, you know, a lot of it is on overlap sites, but some of it is certainly on sites that are proximity sites. In some cases, you know, it's not always totally clear to us. I think they're still working through that. We don't have total, you know, vision on what they're doing with other neighboring sites, but I would say it's a mix of the two. Obviously the greatest focus as it relates to our portfolio would be the sites where they have direct overlap. Ric PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond James00:24:24Great. That's very helpful. I hope you guys continue to stay well and your employees stay well. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:24:28Thank you. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:24:29Thanks, Ric. Operator00:24:31Our next question will come from the line of Simon Flannery with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Simon FlanneryManaging Director at Morgan Stanley00:24:38Thank you. Good afternoon. You talked about the strong leasing and that Dish had this torrid pace. Can you help us understand how the bookings to billings will go? Are we seeing much of Dish in the fourth quarter guide or the new revised full year guide, or is that really gonna flow through more in 2022? You talked about the benefits of recent spectrum auctions or ongoing spectrum auctions, I guess, in here and in Brazil and elsewhere. Maybe on the 3.45, specifically in the U.S., do you think that's gonna create much incremental leasing, or do you think a lot of that can be encompassed by the carriers in their C-band deployments? Any sense of when you might start to see that 3.45 get deployed? Simon FlanneryManaging Director at Morgan Stanley00:25:24Could it pull forward some of that second phase of C-band builds to put up this spectrum? Thanks. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:25:31Our understanding, Simon, on your last question is that the 3.45 will require new radios, so there will be some incremental activity there that the industry should benefit from. What was your first question? Simon FlanneryManaging Director at Morgan Stanley00:25:49Yeah, Dish timing of revenue recognition. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:25:51Oh, Dish. Yeah. I think we've explained this before. But you know, we have a master deal with Dish, and there's commitments and a lot of benefits going back and forth between each parties. I mean, one of the things, Simon, that was in there is Dish has a payments schedule such that after signing, they have until a date certain for installation of their equipment on that site before we begin to start collecting revenue. The vast majority, notwithstanding the tremendous amount of lease ups that we've had, doesn't start until 2022. The answer as to is there much of anything of Dish in the fourth quarter, notwithstanding the activity, is no. I think you had a third question. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:26:48Did I miss? Simon FlanneryManaging Director at Morgan Stanley00:26:49Well, that was on the 3.45, and any sense on the timing of when that you might start to see that deployment relative to the C-band? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:26:57Well, I mean, my understanding is, decisions get made, final auction results are known and decisions get made in the first quarter of next year. I do not believe there's the same clearing requirements that you have with the C-band. I don't see any reason why we wouldn't start to see some activity in the second half. Simon FlanneryManaging Director at Morgan Stanley00:27:25Great. Well, thanks a lot. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:27:29Thank you. Thank you. Operator00:27:31Our next question will come from the line of Jon Atkin with RBC. Please go ahead. Jonathan AtkinManaging Director at RBC Capital Markets00:27:37Yeah. I had a question about international exposure and basically EMEA and maybe tackle Europe and Africa separately, thoughts on you know how those regions might be appealing to you going forward. Domestically, wanted to find out about the timing of revenue. You talked about Dish, but more generally as you think about the availability of workforce and people to actually construct sites, what you're thinking with respect to any pressures that the industry might see in 2022 that might affect leasing revenue recognition as opposed to just bookings. Thank you. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:28:20Yeah, in terms of the globe, Jonathan, I mean, we look all over, and we look to find areas that, you know, fit our criteria. We found a lot of that obviously in the Western Hemisphere, some of that in Africa. I believe we will continue to find those opportunities as we go forward on a country-by-country basis. You know, Africa has a lot of growth, certainly has some risk. If you get in at the right price and you operate well, as we believe we do, you will do well. Europe is a fine market. We just have not found opportunities that are at prices that we think make sense for us, given our other opportunities to deploy capital. We keep looking. I mean, we look at everything. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:29:19That's what people expect us to do. In terms of the labor market, you know, we watch that carefully because obviously a lot of other industries are suffering right now. We are not. We have a large internal workforce of crews. We also use outsourced crews for some of the work. Right now it's all working out okay. There's a number of training resources and opportunities that we think will increase the available workforce over the next several years. I think, you know, I think generally we feel okay, but I mean, that's really a quarter-by-quarter question that you asked. The best I can tell you today is this quarter, next quarter, we feel okay. Jonathan AtkinManaging Director at RBC Capital Markets00:30:10Great. Thank you very much. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:30:11Mm-hmm. Operator00:30:14Our next question comes from the line of Walter Piecyk with LightShed. Please go ahead. Walter PiecykPartner and TMT Analyst at LightShed Partners00:30:23Hey, Jeff. Can you, to the extent you can, provide us a little bit more color about the Sprint, like the churn delay, I guess? I mean, is there any indication that as it goes through the portfolio, they're recognizing that maybe they're not gonna turn off as many sites as originally. I know you talked about the next two years, and they were generally all in the same ballpark. Qualitatively, are they still, I think, targeting overall the same amount, maybe more, maybe less? Any thoughts on that? Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:30:57Well, hey, Walt, this is Brendan. It seems like thus far from what we've seen in our communications with them, that it's generally still targeting the same thing that we thought originally, more or less. You know, I think the shift here is really just the timing on moving off of some of the sites. You may have even seen they talked about some delay in shutting down the CDMA network. You know, I think that probably is a factor in it. I don't think that the overall focus is shifting at all, but the timing might be slightly different, that's all. Walter PiecykPartner and TMT Analyst at LightShed Partners00:31:34Okay. On the inorganic stuff, this year was a pretty big year, although it seems like with the guidance Q4 is, you know, whatever, you know, you're still obviously up versus last year. When you think about 2022 in terms of, you know, new sites, M&A, that type of stuff, any sense in kind of what that market will look like for you? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:31:57I think it will continue to look challenging from an acquisition perspective really based on price, Walter. Prices continue to remain high and in our opinion, without much differentiation for quality, which is where we end up you know being very selective and picking our spots carefully. You know, I do think there's enough out there for us to certainly hit the low end of our historical targeted range of about 5% portfolio growth. I imagine with Tanzania and some increased activity that we expect in some of our existing markets that we will build more towers next year as well. All in all, you know, the 5%-10% portfolio growth will be the goal again next year. Walter PiecykPartner and TMT Analyst at LightShed Partners00:32:55Got it. Thank you. Operator00:32:59Our next question comes from the line of Batya Levi with UBS. Please go ahead. Batya LeviManaging Director and Communications, Media & Infrastructure Analyst at UBS00:33:05Great. Thank you. Just couple follow-ups. First, on the international side, you mentioned that churn should remain elevated for some time. Can you provide more color on that? On capital allocation priorities, can you help us think about maybe discretionary CapEx excluding M&A? Does that stay elevated as you ramp maybe augmentation CapEx to support higher growth? Yeah. That's it. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:33:35Okay. Yeah. On the international churn, you know, we've been, as you've probably seen, and we talked about, I think, on previous calls, that we expected some elevated international churn this year. We haven't experienced most of that yet through the year, but in the fourth quarter, we expect to see that jump largely due, the primary reason is due to consolidation-related churn, particularly with Claro and Telefónica combining in Guatemala. A lot of the impacts of that are starting to be felt here in the fourth quarter, which is what's gonna drive, you know, the full year number that we provided. Obviously, with it being so late in the year, it has an impact on, you know, what we would expect to report, not just in the fourth quarter, but in the next, into next year. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:34:26In addition, you know, we are dealing with a number of our customers in Central America. We have some that are working through network changes due to various issues that they face, and others where the terms of the agreements are starting to come to an end and we're working through what their future plans might look like. You know, we expect there might be some incremental churn associated with that, but we also would expect longer term commitments and other business commitments as well as part of that. It really was an indication mostly, though, about the consolidation churn that we're gonna experience in Q4. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:35:04Batya, on your other question about discretionary CapEx, the way you asked that question, you implied that our non-M&A discretionary CapEx was going up. I don't really think it is in terms of augmentations per tower. I mean, we don't really see anything material there. Keep in mind, there's a historical practice which continues that our customers tend to pay most, if not all, of those augmentation dollars. Would there be something else besides the tower side, Brendan, in the discretionary CapEx? Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:35:40There's been some CapEx spent on the data centers that we acquired. That might be the incremental piece that we obviously hadn't had in the past. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:35:52Yeah. That, just to be clear, that's in response to demand for increased megawattage and capacity at these data centers. That is CapEx that we're extremely pleased to be able to invest. Batya LeviManaging Director and Communications, Media & Infrastructure Analyst at UBS00:36:06Got it. Thank you. Operator00:36:11Next, we'll go to the line of Nick Del Deo, MoffettNathanson. Please go ahead. Nick Del DeoManaging Director at MoffettNathanson00:36:16Hey, thanks for taking my questions. You know, first, if my math is right, it looks like your implied site leasing revenue and tower cash flow guidance for Q4 are about equal to what you generated in Q3, at least at the midpoints. Was there anything that helped Q3 results that won't carry through into Q4, like back billings or anything similar? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:36:35Well, FX. Nick Del DeoManaging Director at MoffettNathanson00:36:39Okay. All right. Simple enough. I guess, you know, in terms of, you know, U.S. activity, are you seeing the incumbents deploy their mid-band spectrum and Dish with its de novo build, you know, kind of engaging with you evenly. You know, relatively evenly across your portfolio? Or is there a noticeable skew towards, you know, more urban or the denser suburban markets that you serve? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:37:04I don't think it's noticeably skewed. I think we're seeing activity pretty much everywhere. Nick Del DeoManaging Director at MoffettNathanson00:37:14Okay. That's good to hear. Hey, you know, if I can squeeze in one last one. If I look at other revenue for international, that was up by about $6 million versus your prior guidance. Is that mostly fuel pass-through fuel or something else going on there? Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:37:29No, it is mostly pass-through expenses. It's actually a lot of it is actually related to ground leases in particular in Brazil, where we pass those through to the carriers. That part of that is CPI. While we projected CPI increases across our tenant leases, we didn't necessarily include that on the ground leases because it's a pass-through. As that's starting to come along with the increased inflation down there, it's pushing ground rents higher, which obviously pushes the pass-through rents higher as well. Plus, there is some power costs, as you mentioned as well. That's the main driver. Nick Del DeoManaging Director at MoffettNathanson00:38:08Okay. Got it. Thank you guys. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:38:10Sure. Operator00:38:14Next, we're going to the line of Philip Cusick with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead. Philip CusickCFO at Tillman FiberCo00:38:21Hi. Thanks, guys. I wanted to follow up. You said, I think in the prepared remarks, that you assume that AT&T is steady from here. Do you think AT&T is at a full run rate, or you're just assuming that they haven't ramped up by the fourth quarter guidance period? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:38:35No, I think to be clear, Phil, we said that they were steady relative to kinda last quarter. I believe that they will ramp up in the times to come. Philip CusickCFO at Tillman FiberCo00:38:49Okay. Is the conversation building toward that already? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:38:55Levy, I'll just leave it the way I said it. I believe that their activity levels will ramp as we move into next year. Philip CusickCFO at Tillman FiberCo00:39:05That's more than I expected. Thanks, Jeff. Operator00:39:15Next, we'll go to the line of David Barden with Bank of America. Please go ahead. David BardenPartner at New Street Research00:39:21I don't know, I can follow up on that belly laugh, Jeff. I guess I had two questions. One was, in the prepared remarks, Brendan, you called out the big four, which we haven't heard in a while. It made me wonder if the magnitude to which Dish is spending is roughly on par with what the actual big three are spending in terms of your business. The second question I had was, you also referenced, you know, some spectrum auctions that are happening in the coming months in not just domestic, but international markets. Specifically, I'm interested in South Africa. That's been a problem market from a spectrum perspective. You know, a little messy over the last little while. David BardenPartner at New Street Research00:40:18I was wondering if you could kind of give us some picture as to what you thought the outlook would be, for South Africa spectrum auctions in 2022. Thanks. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:40:28Yeah, I mean, when you really parse out our comments, David, and you look at the domestic split between leasing and amendments, and you think about historically how networks get upgraded mostly through amendments. Where are all those new leases coming from? Well, they're mostly coming from Dish. Yeah, for this quarter and last quarter, they're right up there in terms of quarterly contributions with the other big three. That's why we said what we said. In terms of South Africa, you know, those spectrum auctions have been pushed back a little bit. There's a lot of interplay between the wireless carriers and the government. The best that we can tell is that the auctions will be not this year, but in 2022. Right now, they're scheduled for the first half. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:41:30They will be the full suite of, you know, 5G spectrum. I think it's 600 or 700 rather, 2.5 and 3.5. So you're gonna have all the tools necessary for the carriers in that country to pick up what they need to move into 5G. So obviously, we're excited about that. It will mean similar to what it means in the U.S. when customers move from 4G to 5G. David BardenPartner at New Street Research00:42:01Perfect. That was exactly what I thought you would say, Jeff. Just for the record. Thank you. Operator00:42:10Our next question will come from the line of Michael Rollins with Citi. Please go ahead. Michael RollinsManaging Director at Citi00:42:16Since you seem to be in such a generous mood to share some new information, I take a crack at this. So you mentioned multi-year ties for services and leasing backlog. I was thinking back to your 10-Ks, where in 2019 you had a leasing backlog of about $22 million. In 2018, you had about $16 million. On the services side, it was about, over those two years, $55 million and $76 million. Can you share some context on how the current backlog compares to these couple of years? Then just secondly, curious if you could delve further into what you're learning from your data centers and how you're thinking about the edge and the role SBA is gonna play in that in the future. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:43:07Yeah. The 10-K disclosures, Mike, are apples and oranges to what we were talking about in our earnings script and the press release. That disclosure is signed leases that have not yet commenced revenue. When we talk about backlog, it's applications. So those two things really are not correlated. But I'll give you a little more color on the backlogs. It's not multi-year high for services, it's all-time high ever. For leasing, it is a multi-year high, going back probably to you know the heady 4G days. But it's good, and it took a big jump up in the quarter notwithstanding a very high degree of signings. That's why we say what we said and why we feel good about next year. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:44:13What was your second question? Michael RollinsManaging Director at Citi00:44:16Oh, what you're learning from the data centers and the edge. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:44:19What we're learning is that it's generally a good business, data centers in general, not that anybody needs me to tell them that. But one that we like and we see synergies with the micro edge facilities, where we have now, we've got four or five of these things, more being built. In many cases, the sale was made because we were able to provide data center space in addition to the micro edge space. There's a big demand for redundancy, for disaster recovery, for backup. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:45:04The hub and spoke model that we talked about earlier as to, you know, where we think this makes the most sense from our perspective is playing out, albeit a little bit slowly because I'm not sure the edge has really quite moved yet to the tower site, but it is headed in that direction. Michael RollinsManaging Director at Citi00:45:25Where do you think this goes over time? Are towers partners to data centers? Are towers owners of a lot more data centers? Where does this evolve into? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:45:38It could evolve in either of those directions, but it does evolve into a more converged universe. I think ultimately the degree of that convergence, Mike, will be how much computing power is truly needed right at the cell site. I don't think we know yet. Michael RollinsManaging Director at Citi00:46:02Thanks. Operator00:46:07Our next question will come from the line of Brett Feldman with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Brett FeldmanSVP - Treasurer and Investor Relations at AT&T00:46:14Thanks. I guess I'll have a follow-up on that one. I mean, we know your historical views on investing in fiber in the U.S., but if you were to start to see real synergy between the connectivity between, you know, your data center assets and the edge facilities you can offer at sites, would you maybe reconsider deploying the fiber between those locations? Just a second question. I would imagine the big uptick in the backlog is from what we're gonna start calling the Big Four again. I'm curious whether you're seeing anything in there from non-traditional tenants, maybe enterprises looking to deploy CBRS based systems using your infrastructure. If it's not in the backlog, is there anything going on from a conversation standpoint to suggest that could be percolating? Thank you. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:46:59On your first question, it could make sense where we control both ends of the destination to have fiber running between that we actually own. We do think over time, Brett, that a full suite of product offerings and solutions to the customer will be good. I mean, it's hard to sell someone. It's not as easy, rather, to sell someone micro edge space when at the same time you say, "Well, you gotta go find your own fiber." You know, we'll see and you know, never say never. I don't think the way fiber has been traditionally you know, bought, developed, and deployed. That's a business I don't know that we would enter. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:47:55It's going to be more when it joins two ends of things that we control. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:48:04Yeah. In terms of the non-traditional tenants in the backlog, there are some certainly, Brett, but as a percentage of the total backlog, it's pretty small. You know, partially because the big carriers are so active right now that we have huge backlogs with them, it's pretty immaterial in terms of its overall impact. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:48:28Yeah. There, there's some in there. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:48:31Yeah. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:48:31It's, I mean, the lion's share is clearly from the Big Four. Brett FeldmanSVP - Treasurer and Investor Relations at AT&T00:48:35Great. Thank you. Operator00:48:40Our next question comes from the line of Colby Synesael with Cowen. Please go ahead, your line is open. Colby SynesaelInvestment Banking at TD Securities00:48:47Great. Thank you. One quick follow-up and then another one. As it relates to the international churn you've highlighted, you expect it to be elevated in the fourth quarter. Is that just a one-quarter thing, or would you anticipate churn being elevated in 2022 versus what we'll ultimately see in 2021? Secondly, in the press release, you guys mentioned, I think this was quoted to Jeff, "We expect elevated domestic leasing activities to continue through 2022, and perhaps beyond." I was wondering if you could just expand on that. Is that really just tied to some of the comments you've already made, as it relates to Dish, or is it really more than that? Colby SynesaelInvestment Banking at TD Securities00:49:25Maybe even how does AT&T in particular factor into that? Thank you. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:49:29Yeah. On the churn, on the international churn side, I do expect it to be elevated not only in the fourth quarter but into next year, in part because the fourth quarter, you know, especially when we report our same tower churn numbers, it's obviously on a trailing 12-month basis, so what happens in Q4 will be carried with us throughout the balance of the year. Next year will certainly be higher, in terms of its full year impact than this year, because of the concentration late in the year. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:50:05Yeah. On the length of the activity, Colby, comments really reflect just the historical norms of the life cycle of a G upgrade going from one G to the next. I mean, when you think about where Verizon is and where AT&T is on C-band, the 3.45 stuff that's not even out yet, and where Dish is, I mean, it's pretty easy to see that activity's gonna move into 2023. Colby SynesaelInvestment Banking at TD Securities00:50:35Do you think then that we could actually be in a situation where we just continue to see that acceleration? Yeah, I think one of the big debates that investors are having now is, do we start to flatline in 2022 or you know is there an opportunity for another step up? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:50:52I mean, at some point it has to flat line. I don't know specifically how to answer that question for next year until we see more about the 3.45 auction and understand some more of the timing. I think, you know, flat line or not, I understand the importance of that from an investor perspective. I mean, we see years of elevated activity. Colby SynesaelInvestment Banking at TD Securities00:51:18Great. Thank you. Operator00:51:21Our next question will come from the line of Eric Luebchow with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead. Eric LuebchowDirector and Senior Equity Analyst at Wells Fargo00:51:28Great. Thanks for taking the question. Just curious on Brazil, if you could maybe provide us some color. You mentioned that same tower growth stepped up there in the quarter, and there's a spectrum auction coming up later this week. Do you think that could, you know, drive another wave of amendment activity across the Brazilian market? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:51:46Yeah, I clearly do because the spectrum that's being put forth is what's really necessary for the carriers to offer a 5G solution, which they have not yet really embarked on. Much like what's gone on here in the U.S., when that spectrum is auctioned and put into use, you're going to have similar activity levels. In terms of the... Do you wanna speak, Brendan, to the increased lease up? Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:52:18Yeah. I mean, the growth rate stepped up. It's really a combination of two things. One is the escalators are higher because of the CPI-based increases. As inflation has increased in Brazil, that's caused our escalators to be increasing. We have in addition seen increased actual leasing activity over the last two quarters, where it's sequentially increased over what it had been at the beginning of the year. I think really as we come out of some of the more serious COVID-related periods in Brazil, we're starting to see the carriers moving back more towards traditional spending levels. That's encouraging as well. Eric LuebchowDirector and Senior Equity Analyst at Wells Fargo00:53:00Great. Thanks. Just one follow-up from me. You mentioned building more towers next year. Just could you remind us which markets you're seeing build-to-suit opportunities in? And perhaps like what you're kind of underwriting today for return or yield requirements for building new sites in terms of an NOI or development yield? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:53:18We will build sites next year in every market in which we are currently active, and in most of those markets, more sites than we built today. We're looking at, you know, generally, 10%-ish tower cash flow yield on day one. Eric LuebchowDirector and Senior Equity Analyst at Wells Fargo00:53:42Got it. That includes the U.S., where new builds have been fairly slow the last few years? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:53:47Yes. It does. Eric LuebchowDirector and Senior Equity Analyst at Wells Fargo00:53:50Okay. Thank you. Operator00:53:56Our next question will come from the line of David Guarino with Green Street. Please go ahead. David GuarinoHead of Global Data Center and Tower Research at Green Street00:54:02Thanks. I was wondering if you could provide any updates on Oi. Specifically I was wondering if you have any updates on the land underlying the, I think it was around 2,000 sites in Brazil that are up for renewal in 2025. Feels like there's a lot of moving pieces, so just trying to understand if there's any risk of lost revenues from those sites. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:54:21Yeah. Now you're talking about the concession sites I think from the acquisition that we did? David GuarinoHead of Global Data Center and Tower Research at Green Street00:54:26Correct. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:54:26Yeah. No, there's really not, and we expect that those will actually be continued on. Actually those leases extend out, I believe, longer than that with us as a commitment from Oi that goes out beyond those dates as well. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:54:40To 2035, I believe. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:54:42Yeah. That's right. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:54:44That transaction is supposed, now the latest thinking is that it doesn't get consummated until sometime next year. With the network rationalization aspects that come out of that not starting until sometime in 2023. David GuarinoHead of Global Data Center and Tower Research at Green Street00:55:05Okay. Maybe switching gears then. Going back to, you know, an earlier question about you guys talking about Dish as part of the big four carriers, does that mean that you're gonna update your customer concentration table, to reflect Dish once the revenue starts commencing on the tower sites? Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:55:21Sure. Yeah, of course. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:55:24Great. Yeah. I mean, once they reach a level. I mean, that we're giving the concentrations above 10% of revenue. Obviously, they'd have to achieve that. Their contributions to leasing activity are significant and on par with the other carriers now. Obviously the total sum of revenue, considering they're starting at zero, is at a much lower percentage. We ultimately will do that if they achieve that level of contribution. David GuarinoHead of Global Data Center and Tower Research at Green Street00:55:52Great. Thanks for taking the question. Operator00:55:57Our final question in queue at this time comes from the line of Brandon Nispel with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Brandon NispelDirector and Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets00:56:06Great. Two questions. One, could you comment just on leasing of PG&E assets? Any additional comments you could provide there? I don't think anybody asked. On the balance sheet, I think you guys called out blended interest costs of 2.25% or so, and then some incremental run rate savings. What else is to be done there going forward? Do you guys see interest expense coming down? Thanks. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:56:33PG&E is ahead of plan, benefiting from all of the U.S. activity from all the contributors that we earlier discussed in general, so we're extremely pleased with that. Brendan CavanaghPresident and CEO at SBA Communications00:56:50On the balance sheet, just to correct what you said, the average interest rate is now on a pro forma basis, 2.6%. There are, you know, potentially some other possibilities. We obviously have maturity dates that come up over the next several years. Really we'll have to see where interest rates are as we hit those dates. There's probably some opportunity to refinance and have some additional improvement. I think we've done the vast majority of that now with the last deal that we just completed this past month. Brandon NispelDirector and Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets00:57:27Great. Thank you. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:57:29Brian, is that it or is there another question? Operator00:57:32We have no further questions in queue. Jeff StoopsChairman of the Board at SBA Communications00:57:35Great. Well, thank you everyone for joining us this evening, and we look forward to reporting our fourth quarter sometime in February. Have a great night.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesBrendan CavanaghPresident and CEOJeff StoopsChairman of the BoardMark DeRussyVP of FinanceAnalystsBatya LeviManaging Director and Communications, Media & Infrastructure Analyst at UBSBrandon NispelDirector and Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital MarketsBrett FeldmanSVP - Treasurer and Investor Relations at AT&TColby SynesaelInvestment Banking at TD SecuritiesDavid BardenPartner at New Street ResearchDavid GuarinoHead of Global Data Center and Tower Research at Green StreetEric LuebchowDirector and Senior Equity Analyst at Wells FargoJonathan AtkinManaging Director at RBC Capital MarketsMichael RollinsManaging Director at CitiNick Del DeoManaging Director at MoffettNathansonPhilip CusickCFO at Tillman FiberCoRic PrentissHead of Telecommunication Services and Media Equity Research at Raymond JamesSimon FlanneryManaging Director at Morgan StanleyWalter PiecykPartner and TMT Analyst at LightShed PartnersPowered by