Earnings Labs

American Tower Corporation (AMT)

Q4 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 11, 2016

$178.40

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the CoreSite Realty Corporation Fourth Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Derek McCandless, Senior Vice President and General Counsel. Please go ahead, sir.

Derek McCandless

Analyst

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and welcome to our fourth quarter 2015 conference call. I’m joined here today by Tom Ray our President and CEO, Steve Smith, our Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing; and Jeff Finnin, our Chief Financial Officer. As we begin our call, I would like to remind everyone that our remarks on today’s call include forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding projections, plans or future expectations. These forward-looking statements reflect current views and expectations, which are based on currently available information and management’s judgment. We assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements and we can give no assurance that the expectations will be obtained. Actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and may be affected by a variety of risks and uncertainties including those set forth in our SEC filings. Also, on this conference call, we refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures such as funds from operations, reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures are available in the supplemental information that is part of the full earnings release, which can be accessed on the Investor Relations pages of our website at, CoreSite.com. And now I’ll turn the call over to Tom.

Tom Ray

Analyst

Good morning and welcome to our Q4 call. We’re pleased to report continued execution of our business plan in the fourth quarter, delivering solid growth and finishing out 2015 as another strong year for our company. Looking at Q4, ‘15 over Q4 ‘14, we reported 31% growth and FFO per share driven by 25% growth in revenue and 32% growth in adjusted EBITDA. We continue to see solid margin performance with our calendar 2015 adjusted EBITDA margin expanding to 51%. This represents an increase of 340 basis points over our margin in 2014. In addition to our solid financial results for the quarter, we finished 2015 and began 2016 with positive leasing momentum. Signing in the fourth quarter 155 new and expansion leases reflecting record transaction count for our company. We’re pleased that in 2015, we increased transaction count each quarter with Q4 ‘15 signings more than 60% greater than the same period a year ago. We attribute this growth to three key factors. First: staffing across our sales and marketing teams were steady in 2015, being largely intact for more than a year now with minimal voluntary churn compared to 2014. Second: we made material improvements to our front-end technology systems in 2015, with the first phase of our technology systems investment focused upon our sales activities and launching to strong success in Q2 of this past year. Finally, we believe that enterprise adoption of cloud services, maybe seeing an inflexion point with an accelerating number of customers connecting to cloud providers across our portfolio. Regarding our interconnection services, interconnection revenues saw another quarter of solid growth at 26% over the prior year quarter, with calendar ‘15 reflecting 25% growth over 2014. And looking at interconnection volumes, Q4 results reflect a similar story to the rest of 2015 as…

Steve Smith

Analyst

Thanks Tom. I’d like to start by reviewing our sales activity during the quarter. Q4, new and expansion sales totaled $8.9 million in annualized GAAP rent comprised of 42,000 net rentable square feet at an average GAAP rate of $211 per square foot of TKD capacity. As it relates to pricing, the Q4 rental rates of $211 per square foot represents a 44% increase over the average rental rate over the first three quarters of this year. Most of this increase was driven by increased power density in Q4. When adjusted for power density, our Q4 rental rates represents an 8% increase over the first three quarters of this year. While we have seen demand for high density requirements increase over time, this quarter was uniquely heavy in its way and therefore does not represent a marked change in our projected outlook. Overall, our Q4 and 2015 sales results reflect our broad appeal across our key U.S. markets as well as the progress our sales organization is making in targeted industry verticals. At the new and expansion transaction counts, we continue to see steady progress against our goal of increasing quarterly volume, with a specific focus on targeting small customer requirements. Regarding Q4, we executed a new company record of 155 new and expansion leases for TKD capacity. In terms of size distribution, 147 leases were for smaller requirements of less than 1,000 square feet, seven leases were for mid-sized requirements of 1,000 and 5,000 square feet and one lease was for 8,300 square feet for an average of lease size signed in the quarter of 272 square feet. Importantly, Q4 leasing represents continued strengthening in our transaction engine producing smaller leases, correlating to a 7% increase and a number of leases smaller than 1,000 square feet compared to Q3…

A - Jeff Finnin

Analyst

Thanks, Steve, and hello everyone. I’ll begin my remarks today by reviewing our Q4 financial results. Second, I will update you on our development CapEx and our balance sheet and liquidity capacity and third, I will introduce our guidance for the year. Q4 financial results were strong with total operating revenues of $90.9 million, a 5.3% increase on a sequential quarter basis and a 25.4% increase over the prior year quarter. Q4 operating revenue consisted of $74.7 million in rental and power revenue from data center space, up 5.7% on a sequential quarter basis and 26.4% year-over-year. $12 million from interconnection revenue, an increase of 5.5% on a sequential quarter basis and 26.1% year-over-year and $2.2 million from tenant reimbursement and other revenues. Office and light industrial revenue was $1.9 million. Q4 FFO was $0.80 per diluted share in unit, an increase of 8.1% on a sequential quarter basis and a 31.1% increase year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA of $47.7 million increased 9.2% on a sequential quarter basis and 31.5% over the same quarter last year. Related, for the full-year 2015, our revenue flow through to adjusted EBITDA and FFO was 66% and 54% respectively adjusted for unusual items in 2014. Sales and marketing expenses in the fourth quarter totaled $4.1 million or 4.5% of total operating revenues. For the full-year, sales and marketing expenses correlated to 4.8% of total operating revenues, 50 basis points below the 2014 level and slightly below the low-end of our guidance range. General and administrative expenses were $9.7 million dollars in Q4 correlating to 10.7% of total operating revenues. For the full-year, G&A expenses correlated to 10.3% of total operating revenues in-line with our guidance. Regarding our same store metrics, Q4 same store turn-key data center occupancy increased 770 basis points to 87.9% from 80.2% in…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Our first question today is coming from the line of Jonathan [sic] Schildkraut with Evercore ISI. Please proceed with your question.

Jonathan Schildkraut

Analyst

You can call me Thomas. But, listen, a couple of questions here, I guess, first, Tom, you mentioned in both the press release and in your prepared comments some of the momentum from ‘15 as continued into the early part of the year. And I guess that sort of asks us to ask you precisely what you’re seeing in the early part of the year and for a little bit more color. And then, sort of a second question, one of the things that Tom, you and I have talked about historically has been sort of the increase in the average sort of size of the performance sensitive deals that were coming in. Now, you guys report on square feet and I think our conversation was more about power density. And so, I was wondering if you might give us little sort of color around that and maybe what some of the drivers are if it is in fact still recurring? Thanks.

Tom Ray

Analyst

Sure, I’m going to take the first and give Steve the second. On the - that’s the second, the first was markets. Yes, Jonathan, I think what we’re trying to make clear is we see continued firm demand in the funnel right now, pretty consistent with last year. As always, three or four quarters out, it’s harder to see and there is certainly lot more chop in the macro environment right now. So, we’ll be paying attention to where, to signs around longer term demand. But what we see right now is a good steady funnel in-line with that of last year. And that’s it, there is no other message than that.

Jonathan Schildkraut

Analyst

All right, great. And then, on the sort of average size of the performance sensitive deployments that you’re seeing?

Steve Smith

Analyst

Yes, this is Steve. As far as performance sensitive I think that can cover a broad range, anywhere from network providers to some of the more financial institutions, some of those that are very more inter-parted base. But have a latency since the requirement. And we’ve seen increases across the board for more performance sensitive type of requirements. But I would say, as far as how that shows up as far as deal size is concerned, I think deal size has remained relatively consistently. As I pointed out in my comments, earlier in the call, we have seen density requirements increase over time. This quarter was uniquely heavy in its weighting. But we have seen equipment providers come out with you that is requiring more power and more cooling. And that’s just to drive some of this heavy workloads.

Jonathan Schildkraut

Analyst

Great, I’ll circle back into the queue. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Dave Rodgers from Robert W. Baird. Please proceed with your question.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hi, it’s Stephen Dye [ph] here with Dave. What are the prospects for interconnection growth in 2016? 2015 you saw a keep-up with the recent trend and you’ve discussed on past calls just in general the network density improving. Can we expect more of the same in 2016?

Steve Smith

Analyst

Well, we’ve been consistent, in the past couple of years seeing that it at some point revenue growth is going to start to converge with unit count growth plus maybe there is 2% or 3% annual pricing bump on top of that. But what we pay most attention to is the rate of our fiber growth and our fiber growth is kind of been in that 16% to 18% range, more up in the not. And we don’t know exactly when that revenue growth trend is going to converge closer to that unit cap growth trend. But we do believe that that’s likely and I don’t know, if you think of that happening over a few years that’s probably not a bad way to model.

Tom Ray

Analyst

And Steve, and the only thing I would add to that is, right towards the end of my prepared remarks I did give some color around revenue growth in 2016 specifically unrecognized when we, I simply said we expected to be somewhere between 15% to 17% revenue growth in ‘16 largely due to what Tom just talked about.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Great, thank you. And then, for G&A in 2016, we think a similar pattern in terms of seasonality as 2015, I’m just trying to get a better sense on that going forward given a bit of a bump in 4Q.

Tom Ray

Analyst

Yes, Stephen [ph], I think just address me with a bump in the fourth quarter as you get a chance to read this supplemental. Inside there you’ll see that we ended up recording about $1.75 million in the fourth quarter. It was specifically associated with two legal issues that we are dealing with, we talked briefly about it in the third quarter call. That amount was expensed during the fourth quarter. And as we sit here today, we’re estimating on those two cases that we expect to resolve them for somewhere between zero and $3 million. We’ve accrued $2.7 million as we sit here today, which we’re comfortable with. But as we move forward into 2016, we’re obviously incurring some level of legal expenses on a quarterly basis just to defend those suits. But that gives you the spike in the fourth quarter of ‘15.

Steve Smith

Analyst

I think in general it’s probably reasonable to straight line.

Tom Ray

Analyst

Yes, I think it’s fairly flat as you think about it for 2016.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Great. Thanks guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Jordan Sadler from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Jordan Sadler

Analyst

Thank you. Can you expand on the inflexion point Tom that you commented on regarding enterprise adoption of the cloud in your prepared remarks, you generally not prone type pre-release. So what specifically are you seeing?

Tom Ray

Analyst

Well, there are two things that are behind that comment, one is funnel, and so perhaps there is more high-probably that might be our norm. But the funnel is to us demonstrably showing more interest in connecting to cloud. But second, we try not to just talk about the funnel and hopes and dreams and wishes. So, our interconnections to cloud and enterprise customers, over the last two years have increased meaningfully, that growth rate has increased meaningfully relative to interconnections to all other providers. And we saw a further increase in the slope of that line in 2015 over ‘14. So, we’re really just tracking the growth of interconnections involving enterprise and cloud customers. And that growth rate has increased very measurably over the last two years and that rate of increase accelerated over the trailing 12 months. And the pace of that acceleration causes us to say, we’ve been saying for some time, it’s early days, it’s very early we’re working off of very small numbers. We’re still working off of relatively small numbers related to the cloud but not miniscule any longer. And the growth rate continues to accelerate. So, that has a saying, something is strengthening around that cloud vertical.

Jordan Sadler

Analyst

Okay. Now, can you bridge that comment and sentiment around the slowdown in the interconnection growth, I realize that question was just asked. But you’re going from 26% year-over-year in the quarter to 16% for next year, and there seems to be a disconnect there.

Tom Ray

Analyst

Well, I think you just see less growth in unit pricing going forward. We’ll see how we’re able to navigate through that and we’ve also been clear that we’re seeing growth in higher priced interconnection products and contraction obviously in the lower priced copper products. And the highest pricing among all of our products is within a logical interconnection set. That has the highest growth rate. So, look, we’re going to hope to drive strengthening enterprise adoption around the higher priced product set and see where that takes us in terms of revenue growth. But it’s really too early to tell. And we wanted to put out there some numbers that we felt good about people modeling.

Jordan Sadler

Analyst

It’s great, thank you. Can you give us the latest on Cross Connect and the portfolio?

Steve Smith

Analyst

We’re just over 20,000.

Jeff Finnin

Analyst

Yes, we disclosed last quarter, Jordan, it was over 20,000, and it’s consistent with where we are today obviously.

Jordan Sadler

Analyst

Still over 20,000, excellent. Thank you.

Steve Smith

Analyst

Yes.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Our next question today is coming from Jon Petersen from Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Jon Petersen

Analyst

Great, thank you. I just wanted to touch on future development. I mean, I guess the first thing was NY2, you guys have done a great job of leasing up the first couple of phases there. It’s at 95% now. But they’ve got nothing in the pipeline, so I’m curious when we see phases 3 through 5 start to enter the construction phase?

Tom Ray

Analyst

It’s all dependent on leasing. And the bottom-line is, we are, as I think most of the industry is now very good at building in modular fashion and assets delivering new inventory fairly rapidly. We tend to think of the ability to deliver new product in existing Core and Shell in a range of 60 to 90 days. So, we just don’t know. And when we have clear absorption, you’ll see more space enter into the development pipeline. But there is no reason to point the bat around that right now and we’ll see where demand takes us.

Jon Petersen

Analyst

So, I mean, so are you saying that you are pretty confident you’ll be able to pre-lease it before you start construction or like the significant portion of it, is that what you’re waiting for to 95%?

Tom Ray

Analyst

Not at all. We’re just saying, we can build very rapidly so we’d like to continue to push occupancy pretty high. And that’s it, we’re not saying anything more or less than that.

Jon Petersen

Analyst

Okay.

Steve Smith

Analyst

This is Steve, just to give you a little bit more color around that. As we went through in the earlier remarks, we’re seeing a lot better transaction around the enterprise phase and those smaller individual deployments which does allow us to drive greater density before we’re, having to fill that additional capacity. So that’s what really allows us to kind of push the envelope further there where we’ve had little bit lighter absorption relative to wholesale which I think is.

Tom Ray

Analyst

It’s lumpy.

Steve Smith

Analyst

It’s lumpy and that’s really indicative of the market in that area.

Jon Petersen

Analyst

Okay. And then just one more question on future developments, so I’m just looking at page 21, the hope for development. You guys are pretty much maxed out in Chicago, and once you finish Northern Virginia, you kind of maxed out. But once you finish VA2, this seems like you maxed out there. So, I guess, what’s the plan for future expansion of market?

Steve Smith

Analyst

We’re aware of both of those facts and are thinking accordingly.

Jon Petersen

Analyst

All right, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Barry McCarver from Stephens Inc. Please proceed with your question.

Brian Hawthorne

Analyst

Hi, this is Brian Hawthorne filling in for Barry McCarver. And first question, can you talk about the growth that comes from current customers versus new customers?

Tom Ray

Analyst

You want to answer that Jeff?

Jeff Finnin

Analyst

Yes, I think in general, it varies a little bit from quarter to quarter. But when you look at the volume of leases and Steve commented a little bit in terms of the logos. But as you look at it from a rents perspective, I think historically we have been around 20% has come from new in any given quarter and the other of it is coming from the existing customers.

Steve Smith

Analyst

And that seems to have kind of stabilized out over the last couple of years, it’s pretty consistent since we’ve reached a level of mass.

Jeff Finnin

Analyst

Yes.

Brian Hawthorne

Analyst

Okay. And then, on the pricing, you talked about on the new expansion leases is going to be little bit higher, it’s going to be lot higher this quarter, but that was driven by power. I guess, kind of how should we think about that then going forward through this year and kind of how much of that was driven by power?

Tom Ray

Analyst

Well, as Steve said, on a power adjusted basis, we saw the rent in Q4 up about 8% over the trial. So, what, in general, the markets are healthier, we’re seeing reasonable rent growth, in some markets more so than others. But things are healthier, we’re expecting yields to go up a bit this year. And that’s it.

Brian Hawthorne

Analyst

All right, thank you guys.

Jeff Finnin

Analyst

Thanks Brian.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Jonathan Atkin from RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hi, this is Rashim [ph] in for Jon. Can you update us on the strategic front and internationally do you feel it would benefit you to enter Europe? And then domestically, it seems a number of your public and private peers are entering new markets. Is this something you also feel inclined to do more or less? Thanks.

Tom Ray

Analyst

Sure, no change really to what we were saying for a long, long, long time. On the margin, we see some value and greater reach, greater breadth in terms of serving the customer, we see some value and scale in terms of internal operations. But we do believe that our existing platform has appropriate and very meaningful reach in North America which we view as a very big vibrant market. And so, we believe we’re highly effective in increasing the value of our business, doing just what we’ve been doing. And that sets a baseline, that belief and that expectation around growth and earnings sets a baseline against which we compare any other activities. And we do look, we do pay attention, we’re the hardworking pragmatic people. We don’t have any natural aversion or drive to grow for growth sake. The growth that we want to see is in earnings per share for the common shareholder, that’s where we focus. And we don’t anticipate that changing one bit.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Matthew Heinz from Stifel. Please proceed with your question.

Matthew Heinz

Analyst

Thank you, good afternoon. Regarding the footnote disclosure on your third largest customer in the customer table. So, I was wondering if you could give us a bit more detail around the product mix of their deployments as well as your expectations for mark-to-market and then kind of the contribution for the expected churn there in your overall churn guidance?

Steve Smith

Analyst

Sure, I’m just going to give you get some color from a sales perspective. That customer continues to mature with us, frankly, we’ve seen them level out to some degree as far as their overall growth release within our portfolio. And we continue to look at how we can evolve that relationship. But overall it’s stable and it’s continuing to evolve.

Tom Ray

Analyst

Let me just give you some color Matt, I guess on the churn and the mark-to-market. Obviously, both of those numbers that we’ve given for guidance reflect where we think that customer will ultimately end up as it relates to lease renewals as well as some churn. We do expect some churn to result. But we’re still working with the customer and we anticipate some of that in the back half of the year. But again, those amounts are included in our annual guidance as it relates to both churn and the mark-to-market.

Steve Smith

Analyst

And I’d say, that customer is very widely distributed across our portfolio, in a lot of different locations, in lot of different leases with a lot of different expiration dates. And the churn and mark-to-market are related. And we just, as everybody has pointed out, there are some markets where we’re not sitting on a bunch of vacant space. And we’re not inclined to, we’re here to drive the returns on our investment and there will be times when that will contribute to churn. If we believe that we should, we paid more for space in certain markets or is there another set of customers, we’ll create more value for our shareholders than you can expect to see churn in those markets. And we think that’s just to divine and often good.

Matthew Heinz

Analyst

Okay, that’s helpful commentary. Thank you. And then, if I could just follow-up one more on the interconnection piece. I guess, it seems like there has been about six or seven points of call it pricing or mix growth, that’s benefited revenues versus what you site as fiber volumes in the last several quarters. And I suppose the 2016 guide kind of implies that that goes away. I guess, I’m just looking for a little more color on, is it the mix of copper and fiber and that transition is largely over with or is it just kind of that you’ve sort of reached the plateau in terms of how you can price fiber? Thanks.

Tom Ray

Analyst

I just think the upside on fiber pricing is less than it was a couple of years ago.

Matthew Heinz

Analyst

Okay, so, less driven by mix, transitioning more to fiber from copper?

Tom Ray

Analyst

Yes, I mean, look, the mix continues to support, and we believe the mix will continue to support revenue growth exceeding interconnection, total interconnection growth, because the mix is increasingly at a higher revenue per unit, pointed toward more units that are higher revenue per unit. Over the last several years, we’ve moved our pricing closer to where we’ve seen market, I think we deeply discounted the market, handful of years ago, we’ve moved that up. I think we’re still below that of probably the two larger interconnection incumbent. So we feel like there is still room but less though than before. And we don’t expect to lean in on pricing as heavily in the next year as we did in some of the past years.

Matthew Heinz

Analyst

Okay, thanks a lot guys. Appreciate it.

Jeff Finnin

Analyst

Thanks Matt.

Operator

Operator

Our next question today is coming from Manny Korchman from Citi. Please proceed with your question.

Manny Korchman

Analyst

Hi Jeff, just a quick one for you. The impairment of internal used software that you guys took in the quarter, is that related to the same software package that you’ve taken impairments on in the past and if so, are we sort of done with those and that’s a product that you just, or a project that you just shelved at this point?

Tom Ray

Analyst

I’ll hit it Jeff, I mean, I own that step. That right up in Q4 was from a new initiative this year that we drew or drive well on. That’s fixed, we’ve got, as we’ve said and as I said in my remarks, the technology platform we delivered in Q2, really focused on sales and marketing, the front-end of our business went very, very, very well. Also during ‘15, we started several other technology projects internally that are leveraging off of that Q2 delivery, one of those we pulled the plug on this year in Q4. Then we’re going to take a different approach on it. So that’s it.

Manny Korchman

Analyst

Thanks Tom.

Tom Ray

Analyst

Yes.

Jeff Finnin

Analyst

Thanks Manny.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Colby Synesael from Cowen & Company. Please proceed with your question.

Colby Synesael

Analyst

Great, I have two. So just wanted to go back initially to, I think it might have been in Jonathan’s question to start off. You mentioned in your prepared remarks you had better visibility on the retail oriented or small deployment type product. And you said you felt that guidance or the visibility was good through the course, you thought that the demand wouldn’t perspective be similar to what you saw in 2015. But you said for wholesale you only had good visibility through I think the first half of this year. Can you just kind of walk us through, why you might have better visibility on the smaller retail part versus wholesale? I would think that the lead times that are required for wholesale that might have actually been flipped. And then I also have a question on AFFO, I know you don’t give guidance for AFFO, but I was wondering if you guys can give us some color on your expectation there particularly that might relate to the straight line rent adjustment line item as well as capitalized leasing commissions? Thank you.

Steve Smith

Analyst

Hi, this is Steve, maybe I’ll just take the first part of that question relative to pipeline strength and momentum coming into 2016. As far as the retail business is concerned, that tends to be more of a run rate type of business. So, as we look at how we finish the year and coming into 2016, we’re just looking at the overall pipeline, it seems to be more consistent. As far as distance and visibility into the future, that can change these types of market conditions and everything else, right. So, that’s TBD, I think as far as overall long-term 2016 view is concerned but overall pipeline and run-rate seems to be in line. Relative to wholesale, I think those type of opportunities do have a bit more I would call it six-months’ worth of visibility. You do see those opportunity that take a little bit longer sales cycle, those kind of customers are a little bit more pragmatic and thoughtful about their planning and when they look to deploy. So that just gives us a little bit better visibility as to at least the next six months.

Colby Synesael

Analyst

I guess, the point there that was that, your comments you have better visibility on retail versus wholesale isn’t necessarily a reflection of trends in the market as much as a function those types of specific services?

Tom Ray

Analyst

Yes, I mean, it’s Tom, but look, retail, certainly for the performance sensitive and the colocation absorption in our business has been remarkably consistent for years and years and years. And we’ve I think obtained a degree of comfort that that will continue in large measure for certainly for the next 12 months, we’re giving visibility for a year around that and it feels very solid. And on the wholesale side, you’re right, there are deals in the market and lots of people indicating the need space. Forgive us for being old and Maudlinly after living through several cycles, you just never know. So we just won’t point the bat too far into the future around wholesale. You just never know. So, we’re going to pay attention like we always do.

Jeff Finnin

Analyst

Yes, on your second question, just to give you some historical thoughts, you’re right, we don’t guide to AFFO. But if you just look at where we’ve been over the past several years as a public company, our AFFO, it does become a little volatile, just it largely depends on leasing commissions as well as straight line rent as you point it out. I think if you look at us historically, we’ve been, our AFFO as a percentage of FFO has been anywhere between 80%, to 85%, I think that’s a good range to use as you think about modeling it for 2016. And then specifically around straight-line rent, straight-line rent increased during 2015 and that’s largely due to some of the wholesale larger deployments we saw which typically have ran some and as a result have a greater proportion of straight-line rents associated with them. We would expect that number to come down and moderate slightly in 2016 just due to those ramping in the cash continuing to be paid, and the straight line amount decreasing. Secondly, on leasing commissions, you could see obviously the amount we paid in 2015 being about $21.5 million, we would expect that to moderate meaningfully in 2016, again what drives that are larger wholesale deployments. And we would expect that to be down in 2016 just due to the deployments we’re selling in - anticipate selling in 2016 versus what we did last year.

Tom Ray

Analyst

But that’s where the uncertainty is.

Jeff Finnin

Analyst

Yes, that’s really where there uncertainty is.

Tom Ray

Analyst

Instant commissions.

Jeff Finnin

Analyst

Yes, absolutely, that’s where it’s going to be driven by what we sell.

Colby Synesael

Analyst

Great. Thank you. And congratulations on the results.

Tom Ray

Analyst

Thank you.

Jeff Finnin

Analyst

Thanks Colby.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Jordan Sadler of KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Jordan Sadler

Analyst

Thanks, I just wanted to come back to the availability of product that was touched on Chicago, Northern Virginia, potentially Santa Clara, you’ve got some there now. But if you sign some of these, so this is kind of two parts, one if you opportunistically sign some of these wholesale tenants that are in the market, I would imagine some of this availability would dissipate even quicker potentially. So, one: I’m curious about that appetite to sign the wholesale guys versus the smaller retail tenants. And then separately, do you see opportunity to do new De Novo builds out there given land pricing in those markets?

Tom Ray

Analyst

Well, that’s the first, our appetite for wholesale, it’s just driven by spot market pricing. There is no more magic to it than that. And again, we would lean more heavily when we have a lot of new inventory. How we think about that, hasn’t changed over all the years. As we talked about it a minute ago, we feel like we have a pretty good read on the field rate from the really good colocation business, and that’s a pretty steady line. And in a big new building such as Santa Clara, for one, when you have that big of a building, then some degree of wholesale, leasing is interesting. But again, the math has to work. The rent has to be attractive. And then, can we build more in these markets, I think that on the one hand, this kind of development is more challenging than other types of development, I do believe that with regard to power in particular. But on the other hand, its non-insurmountable, I think we’ve proven for a long, long time that we’re a highly capable land buyer and developer. We do stay on top of market opportunities, and we just continue to feel good about our ability to grow the company and to serve our customers and to take good care of our shareholders. And maybe we just don’t feel under any form of duress, we think we can execute and continue to grow.

Jordan Sadler

Analyst

Okay, that’s helpful. Just lastly, I look at and you guys have executed well on development obviously, but I also look at your portfolio today and how highly utilized it is in a sort of longer-term context basically, as long as I’m sort of tracking the company. It’s much higher, your stock price also much in terms of valuation looks good, and pretty rich relative to some of the peers. I mean, how do you think about that your valuation and using your currency opportunistically?

Tom Ray

Analyst

Well, we just think about our valuation mathematically on the trial, we’ve tried to produce strong growth and we feel like we have. And on the forward, we view our valuation as a maniacal drive to under-promise and over-perform, nothing is going to change. We are going to work like hell to deliver on the promise that’s inside this company and we still think that promise is pretty significant. With regard to using as a currency for M&A, I mean, again no change, and I know you don’t expect anything other than that from us Jordan. It’s, I’m a firm believer that every decision needs to be accretive to what else you could have done. And maybe sometimes you’re multiple is high because you’re not using your currency in a manner that is dilutive or people believe you have discipline around how to use the currency. Maybe we should be running about as happy spread investors but that’s not how we’re made. Again we view our equity extremely dearly and we believe we have a really good run in front of us more to accomplish. And that sets a baseline against we measure everything else. And that’s just not going to change.

Jordan Sadler

Analyst

I think we all appreciate that. Thanks Tom.

Tom Ray

Analyst

All right.

Jeff Finnin

Analyst

Thanks, Jordan.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We’ve reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Ray for any further or closing comments.

Tom Ray

Analyst

Thank you very much. And thanks to everybody for being on the call. I would depart from our norm, we have we think a really good relationship with everybody in the community. But I do need to call everybody on the phone out on this one, absolutely no proper for Year 2016 Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos. We’re hurt, we’re stunned but we’re going to still love you. We’re back to business. That’s just it, back to business. We have a lot we believe we’re going to accomplish. We feel like we’re still very well positioned to drive growth and drive earnings. And we’re going to stay focused on that. So, thanks for taking the time to understand our company. We appreciate it. We’ll be available to help anybody going forward to understand the company. And we’ll put a wrap on it. Thank you again.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. That does conclude today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.