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  "documentTitle": "American Tower (AMT)",
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  "presentationDate": "2013-07-17 00:00:00",
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  "notes": "The slide critiques the company's accounting adjustments, specifically the add-back of depreciation, arguing that tower assets have a finite useful life and thus depreciation is a real economic cost.",
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      "text": "In light of the foregoing, a proportion of a tower company's real estate does not rise and fall with the market, as per NAREIT's definition, but diminishes over time in line, to a large extent, with depreciation.",
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      "text": "In the 8-K for Q1 2012, AFFO was calculated as being $296m, in Q1 2013 this is restated to $326m.",
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      "text": "It can therefore be argued that adding back the full amount of depreciation is over valuing ATL’s operations, because these are not apartment buildings that will rise and fall with market value.",
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      "text": "ATL’s AFFO number is not based on an industry standard, and any comparison to more traditional REITs is of little value to shareholders, unless further adjustments are made.",
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      "text": "Historical cost accounting for real estate assets implicitly assumes that the value of real estate diminishes predictably over time. Since real estate values instead have historically risen or fallen with market conditions, many industry investors have considered presentations of operating results for real estate companies that use historical cost accounting to be insufficient by themselves. — NAREIT FFO White Paper",
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