BOSTON-The four publicly traded tower companies received a much-needed boost from Wall Street this week, following tolerable carrier earnings and some financial announcements of their own.
Third-quarter earnings announcements from AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Nextel Communications Inc., including AT&T’s plan to spend $2.3 billion on its GSM network build-out in the fourth quarter, seemed to positively impact shares of the tower companies, as all saw major gains following the carriers’ releases. Thursday afternoon, shares of American Tower Corp. were trading at $1.40, up more than 50 percent, Crown Castle International Corp. was at $2.60, up 26.83 percent, SBA Communications Corp. was trading at 27 cents, up 17.39 percent, and SpectraSite Holdings Inc. was at 11 cents, up 83.33 percent.
Earlier this week, American Tower amended provisions of the loan agreement for senior secured credit facilities of some of its subsidiaries to ease the its pro forma debt service covenant, tighten its leverage ratio and eliminate certain investment baskets. The company also said Verestar, which it is selling, is no longer a borrower but lenders can still claim its assets as collateral. American Tower said it expects to achieve free cash flow in early 2003.
In addition, Crown Castle said the quarterly dividend on its 6.25-percent Convertible Preferred Stock will be paid on Nov. 15 to holders of record, as of Nov. 1, in shares of common stock. The dividend rate will be announced on or before Nov. 1.
