Bridger Aerospace Group Holdings, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Bridger Aerospace second quarter 2023 conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Eric Jarrett, Chief Financial Officer.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. Joining me on the call this afternoon are Chief Executive Officer, Founder, and Director, Tim Sheehy, and Chief Investment Officer and Director, McAndrew Rudisill. Before we begin, please note that certain statements contained in this conference call that do not describe historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Since forward-looking statements are based on various assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Factors that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed include but are not limited to those discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including expectations regarding financial results for 2023. Management cannot control or predict many factors that ultimately impact future results. Listeners should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements which reflect management's views only as of today. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our assessments to change. However, we undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement or to make any other forward-looking statement. For those joining by webcast, you can follow along with today's presentation. For those listening by phone, you can access today's presentation on our website at www.bridgeraerospace.com under the Investor Relations tab. Throughout this afternoon's earnings release and our call-in presentation today, we refer to the non-GAAP financial measure, adjusted EBITDA. The definition, calculation, and reconciliation to the financial statements of adjusted EBITDA can be found in Exhibit A of our earnings release, which is available on our website. We believe adjusted EBITDA is useful in evaluating our reported results as a supplement to, and not a substitute for, reported results under GAAP. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Tim.

Thank you, Eric. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome. I'm happy to be joining you today to discuss our second quarter results and our progress as becoming a public company in January this year, including recent contract wins and the announcement of our first acquisition, which will expand our aero firefighting services to new mission-critical areas and create the largest specialty wildfire aviation fleet in the country. Our second quarter update, as we entered the second quarter, we were prepared for the start of the wildfire season, which typically starts mid-April. Each fire season has its own complexion, and this year has been no different. Due to the considerable winter snowpack in the west and wet spring conditions, the season began approximately six weeks later than usual. We actively worked to offset the impact of the slow start in the U.S. by expanding our aero-firefighting operations into Canada for the first time in our history. With a relatively dry winter in Canada, wildfires kicked off early and a record Record acreage continues to be burned to this day. Our operations in Canada allowed Bridger to increase fleet utilization during the second quarter, despite the slower start in the United States. Now that we've operated in Canada and gone through the regulatory process to do so, we expect that Bridger will continue to operate in Canada in the future as part of normal operations going forward. I'm very proud of the team for doing so well on our first international operations. The wet spring in the western U.S. did result in vegetation growth, which created excess fuel in most U.S. mountain forests. As extreme hot and dry conditions spread through the West, we saw an acceleration of wildfire activity towards the end of the second quarter, as lightning strikes and human activity ignited this dried undergrowth. Today, all of our scoopers and air attack assets have been called back to the U.S. and are currently deployed, supporting active fire incidents from Washington State to Texas and many places in between. In previous years, with later starts at the core, the fire season is oftentimes pushed further into the fourth quarter. As a result, we believe our 2023 guidance remains achievable. The trend for government outsourcing of aerial firefighting continues to benefit Bridger. In July, we received notice that we were awarded two five-year exclusive contracts worth up to $24 million each and one culminated contract worth up to $20 million with the U.S. Department of Interior for high-resolution surveillance operations using specialized air attack assets, which is based on the Bridger architecture of proprietary software and data platforms, which is redefining the industry. With the recent decommissioning of the US Air Force's distributed real-time infrared aircraft, our modern fleet is ideally suited to serve the DOI to help detect new fires, provide situational awareness for larger fires, and real-time data transmission and updates to line personnel. These contracts, worth up to $68 million in revenue, also mark the first contract awards of a multi-year DOI contract to the private sector for this mission. As a small business with leading edge sensor and mapping capabilities, industry-leading software capabilities, and historic contract performance, we are well-positioned to support our federal, state, and government clients in the growing battle against wildfires. I will now turn it over to McCander Rudisill to discuss the recently announced acquisition of Bighorn Airways.