Bridger Aerospace Group Holdings, Inc. Q1 FY2025 earnings call

• Wildfire activity was extensive, with earliest deployment of scooper fleet in January and farthest east deployment in North Carolina. Deployed 2 scoopers and had MMA assets stationed in Oklahoma and New Mexico.
• Added 2 contracts: a 5-year $20.1 million IDIQ contract with the U.S. Department of the Interior and a contract for wildfire detection/mapping in Montana.
• FMS contributed $1.9 million in revenue. Ignis Technologies' mobile platform for firefighters is in development with milestones being hit.
• Spanish Scoopers owned under partnership with MAB Funding, LLC are on track for return to service, with first two aircraft expected to be deployed in Europe for 2025 wildfire season.
• Entered memorandum of understanding with Positive Aviation to be exclusive North American launch customer for FF72 aircraft.

In the first quarter of 2025, Bridger Aerospace achieved a record revenue of $15.6 million, a significant increase from $5.5 million in the first quarter of 2024. Revenue from ongoing operations, including FMS, more than doubled to approximately $9.7 million compared to $4.5 million in Q1 2024. Cost of revenues was $17.2 million in Q1 2025, consisting of $6.2 million in flight operation expenses and $11 million in maintenance expenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses were $8.6 million in Q1 2025 compared to $11.6 million in Q1 2024. The company reported a net loss of $15.5 million or $0.41 per diluted share in Q1 2025, while adjusted EBITDA was negative $5.1 million, an improvement from negative $6.9 million in Q1 2024.

• Project 20% growth in adjusted EBITDA at midpoint of $42 million to $48 million on revenue of $105 million to $111 million for 2025.
• Guidance excludes impact from Spanish Super Scoopers currently, but will update as contracting is concluded.
• Benefit from full year of FMS Aerospace, cost rationalization efforts, and increased operating leverage.
• Expect positive cash from operating activities in 2025, with majority of adjusted EBITDA generated in third quarter during peak wildfire activity.

Q: In the President's skinny budget request that came out, there's a significant 65% step-up in DHS and Border Patrol funding. Do you have to wait until the fiscal year '26 budget gets passed to get new awards that would be for DHS? Or are there existing contracts under which you're operating that you can generate revenues for surveillance with the PC-12s under the continuing resolution funds for '25?

A: Austin, this is Sam. I'll turn this one over to John to respond. John Saunders: Yes, Austin, great question. Currently, the PC-12s are on contract, and we are seeing extremely high utilization of those airframes. So we're looking at contract opportunities coming out of the budget. We would likely go after new contract opportunities and fill those contract opportunities either with upselling some of our current air attack, aircraft, leasing additional aircraft, we or purchasing additional aircraft. The Pilatus PC-12s are our highest utilization airframes. And what we're seeing is demand that started in February and is running likely through November for those airframes. So it's unlikely that we would add the PC -- or utilize the PC-12s right now for Border Patrol. We do continue to look at those contract opportunities, and I would point you to the Montana contract opportunity where we took a Kodiak and added a TK-8 and made that available for the state of Montana. So we're continuing to look at other airframes that are in our fleet that can be modified or adding new airframes to the fleet to go after those contract opportunities.

Q: And if we think about Europe for a second, I know you had said that some of the contracts are in the final planning stages, but should we be thinking about negotiations with Turkey and Portugal? Or are there other European countries that are also in the mix?

A: Sam Davis: Austin, yes, we are talking with those countries specifically. They both have open tenders out there and are very interested in these assets. We have continued to talk with additional countries. As you can imagine, in Europe, the construct of a privately owned, privately operated fleet of CL aircraft is a new introduction there, similar to how we've expanded it here in the U.S. So part of the opportunity is expanding the contracts, both from an appropriations and a multiyear construct. So we're doing that with initial countries that have very high demand for the CL platforms, and we know that others will follow. Initially, those discussions are well underway. the preceding delivery item here is, as I mentioned in my call, the aircraft -- the second aircraft is very imminently near its certificate of airworthiness. As you can imagine, the government entities we're talking to want to see that in hand before contract award. But I'll also indicate the awards that we've seen from Turkey and Portugal for firefighting aircraft that have been delivered early this year, the activity that we see happening. And I'm sure as you've seen, unfortunately, there have been major wildfires in South Korea, although that's not Europe, but Israel as well that are obviously creating the same level of rising demand and kind of unanswered need there in Europe.