BOSTON-American Tower Corp. reported strong third-quarter results, including increased revenues and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and decreased net losses.
Total operating revenues were $186.9 million, up from $174.9 million in the third quarter of 2002, and net loss was $52.9 million, or 25 cents per share, greatly improved from $353.9 million, or $1.81 per share, last year. EBITDA increased 28 percent from the year-ago quarter to $100.9 million. American Tower also reported free cash flow of $20.6 million for the quarter. For the company’s 13,200 owned towers, same tower revenue was 11 percent and same tower cash flow growth was 15 percent from the year-ago quarter.
“This steady expansion of free cash flow has enabled us to strengthen our balance sheet,” explained Jim Taiclet, American Tower’s chief executive officer. “The cash flow from operations, combined with the proceeds from non-core business divestitures and our recent equity offering have provided us with the liquidity to reduce our overall level of net debt. Moreover, our sustained operational performance and balance sheet de-leveraging have improved our access to capital, as we continue to reward stakeholders across our entire capital structure.”
For full-year 2003, the company expects to report total revenues between $708 million and $718 million and EBITDA between $389 million and $395 million. Going forward, American Tower predicts total revenues for full-year 2004 will be between $727 million and $780 million, and EBITDA will be between $430 million and $460 million.
The company’s stock was down about 3 percent to trade at $11.60 per share following the earnings release.
