American Tower reaffirms financial projections; denies bankruptcy rumors

American Tower, whose shares have been on a slide since hitting their 52-week high of $16.30 a year ago, took steps to reassure investors by reaffirming its belief that the company’s third-quarter rental and management division revenue would range from $140 million to $144 million, and that tower cash flow would range from $85 million to $89 million. American Tower’s stock closed at a price of 75 cents today.

Steve Dodge, American Tower’s chairman, said in a prepared statement, “While this is clearly a tough business environment, we are continuing to execute against our plan for the year. Reaffirming guidance is an unusual step for us. However, the interests of our stakeholders, including our employees, are being undermined by false rumor and innuendo. The fact is, we are experiencing strong sequential quarterly EBITDA growth and margin expansion, as we drive toward free cash flow in the first quarter 2003. We look forward to reporting actual results on November 8, 2002.”

American Tower has been dogged by rumors that it might file for bankruptcy protection. “It’s the nature of the beast in the telecom market right now,” the company’s chief financial officer, Brad Singer, was quoted by the Dow Jones newswire as saying. “We have not filed Chapter 11, nor do we plan on filing Chapter 11.”