1166: Building Equity Value in a Capital-Intensive World | Derek Doyle, CFO, C Spire

Fiber is “a lot of investment up front for that stream of cash flow in the future,” Derek Doyle tells us. At C Spire, that reality defines nearly every strategic decision.

The advanced technology and communications company has been reinventing itself for more than 70 years, Doyle tells us. Today, it is the largest privately held wireless carrier in the U.S. and operates 22,000 miles of fiber, placing it among the top 20 fiber internet providers in the country by premise passings, he tells us. The company has invested hundreds of millions of dollars expanding beyond Mississippi into Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida, Doyle tells us—moves that require disciplined capital judgment.

For Doyle, capital allocation is not just about near-term profit. It is about equity value. Public companies may emphasize shareholder return metrics, but as a private company, C Spire centers on equity value growth, he tells us. “I’m a big intrinsic value person,” Doyle explains, grounding decisions in discounted cash flow and intrinsic value models, he tells us.

That approach requires looking beyond projected profit to the full funding equation—how much must be borrowed, how much capital deployed up front, and what long-term cash flows justify the investment, Doyle tells us.

Ultimately, the objective is clear: invest resources in what “drives that needle the most,” he tells us—ensuring that growth in connectivity translates into sustainable enterprise value.