Crown Castle announces plans to enhance operational performance

Crown Castle announced plans to enhance operational performance. “As we have continued to progress the strategic and operating review of Crown Castle’s fiber business, we are implementing changes designed to drive operational efficiencies and to enhance returns in fiber solutions and small cells. These changes are being implemented, regardless of the outcome of the strategic review, which remains active and ongoing,” stated Steven Moskowitz, Crown Castle’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “With these changes, we are pursuing a more focused sales effort to target on-net and near-net demand and, critically, increasing return thresholds on all new growth opportunities to drive a more efficient use of capital. We believe implementing these changes will lower our capital expenditures on lower-return opportunities in 2024 by $275 million to $325 million while maintaining our expectations for revenue growth across towers, small cells, and fiber solutions over the next several years. Because this reduction in capital expenditures leads to reduced activity, we are also reducing staffing levels and closing certain offices, which we expect will drive approximately $100 million of annualized run-rate operating cost savings, significantly improving our ability to convert incremental revenue into cash flow. We believe this increased focus on cost discipline and capital efficiency will enable us to generate higher returns and reduce our reliance on external capital to fund organic growth opportunities.”