Bridger Aerospace Group Holdings, Inc.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to today's Bridger Aerospace third quarter 2024 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question and answer session. Please note, today's call will be recorded, and I will be standing by should you need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to CFO of Bridger Aerospace, Eric Jarrett. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. Joining me on the call this afternoon is Chief Executive Officer Sam Davis and Senior Vice President of Finance and Capital Markets, John Saunders. Before we begin, please note that certain statements contained in this conference call that do not describe historical facts Our forward-looking statements is 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 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. including expectations regarding financial results for 2024. 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 statements. Throughout this afternoon's earnings release and our call today, we refer to the non-GAAP financial measure adjusted EBITDA. The definition, calculation, and a 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 results reported under GAAP. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Sam.

Thank you, Eric. Before I begin, I just want to recognize all of our veterans today on Veterans Day. We thank you all for your service, including those veterans at Bridger who play a critical role in our operations. We are extremely proud to announce our third quarter results, which include the height of the 2024 wildfire season, with revenue reaching nearly $65 million, net income of $27.3 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $47 million. our dedicated operations team facilitated high levels of deployment of our entire fleet throughout the year, ensuring our fleet was ready as early as February and through our current deployment in Texas for the latest and longest wildfire season in Bridger's history. 2024 is representative of the trend of longer and more intense wildfire seasons and the financial results Bridger can generate with its current fleet of six scoopers and six air attack aircraft. Overall, we consider 2024 a more typical wildfire season, particularly when compared to last year. While we saw a late start to the peak of the season, the U.S. spent a total of 59 days at preparedness level five, which we refer to as PL5, including 10 days in October. As a reminder, PL5 is the National Interagency Fire Center's highest level, and it signifies that major fire incidents are occurring across multiple geographic areas with the potential to exhaust all agency fire resources. In comparison, last year there were zero days at PL5 and only 21 days at PL4. The last time we saw PL5 was actually in 2021 with 68 days at PL5 and an additional 31 at PL4. Through November 1st, 2024, over 8 million acres have burned nationally. This compares to just 2.7 million acres burned last year. For comparison, the five-year average is 7.7 million total acres burned. While 2024 was an above-average year in duration, and even the East Coast has seen unprecedented wildfire activity this fall, a combination of factors can impact whether Bridger gets called. Overall, we believe the days of work and flight hours were only slightly above average for Bridger. As states scrambled this summer to secure aerial firefighting resources against the backdrop of government agency contracting lags and budgeting delays, we strategically secured exclusive use minimum day task orders for four of our six air attack aircraft, two multi-mission aircraft, and four of our six super scoopers, driving increased utilization. We continue to focus on maximizing the number of these exclusive use commitments, ensuring our fleet remains dedicated to critical wildfire response efforts with the goal of maximizing price and flight hours. We're also focusing on securing multi-year contracts, which will serve to guarantee overall revenue and smooth out seasonality associated with peak wildfire season days and hours. Much of this groundwork happens in the winter months as government budgeting and planning cycles are underway. As the 2024 wildfire season winds down, the task orders for our two Pilatus PC-12 multi-mission aircraft, or MMA, guaranteed for 150 days apiece were extended to greater than 190 days apiece. We also added some non-fire-related missions throughout the year for additional work. We currently have stationed two scoopers in Texas on standby, positioned for activity under continued high threat of fire activity, a testament to the growing demand during the late season. While some of this revenue is less profitable than in-season revenue, it serves to boost asset utilization in the shoulder season. Turning to FMS, as a reminder, we closed the acquisition on June 28th, so this was FMS's first quarter as a part of Bridger, and it contributed approximately $1.6 million to revenue. Adding FMS's strong engineering, modification, and manufacturing capabilities to Bridger has already created exciting growth opportunities in mission-critical areas such as aerospace modifications and defense systems engineering. And we hope these opportunities will enable us to diversify our customer base and add more year-round revenue to help offset the seasonal nature of our aerial firefighting business. FMS also continues to build a pipeline to support Bridger aircraft for modifications to solidify our competitive advantage and to incorporate leading-edge sensor technologies as well as separate projects in Bridger aircraft to enhance performance, reliability, and safety. A quick update on Ignis Technologies. Our software subsidiary launched its mobile platform this year to support firefighters in the field. Several counties, crews, and incident management teams are currently piloting the app. As we move forward, many of these organizations are expected to transition to a subscription-based model for the 2025 wildfire season with flexible pricing based on organization size and features. A major focus of ongoing development is linking Bridger's real-time sensor imagery with the IGNIS app, creating a seamless data flow from air to ground. This capability promises to unlock new levels of situational awareness, supporting multi-mission aviation contracts and enhancing both operational effectiveness and safety. We remain on track with plans to expand into Europe through our partnership with Marathon Asset Management LP and Avenues Sustainable Solutions Fund, which completed the purchase of four super scoopers from the Spanish government last fall. We are pleased with the progress of the return to service process managed by our Spanish subsidiary, Albacete Aero, and we remain on schedule for all four scoopers to be available during the 2025 wildfire season. We recognized approximately $2.2 million of revenue related to this return-to-service work in the quarter, with the majority of that also hitting our cost line as well. We are in the process of sourcing operating contracts for all four of these aircraft while their services remain in high demand. At that point, we will determine how best to bring these high margin assets into the business. As we look ahead to the fourth quarter, we see continued use of bridger aircraft as the intensity of the wildfire season extended into October nationally and into November in certain parts of the country. Year to date, we have dropped just shy of 9 million gallons of water. As a result, we expect a record year, including the generation of positive free cash flow after maintenance, capital expenditures, and debt service. Let me now turn it back to Eric, who will talk about our financial performance in the quarter.