Bridger Aerospace Group Holdings, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to Bridger Aerospace First Quarter Fiscal 2025 Investor Conference Call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Eric Jarrett, Chief Financial Officer. Thank you. Mr. Jarrett, you may begin.

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 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 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including expectations regarding financial results for 2025. 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. Throughout this afternoon's earnings release and call today, we refer to the non-GAAP financial measure adjusted EBITDA. The definition, calculation, and reconciliation of 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. With wildfire activity stretching from California to Oklahoma to North Carolina, we experienced many firsts for the company in the first quarter of 2025. Not only was January the earliest deployment of our scooper fleet in history, but our deployment to North Carolina was the farthest east we have fought fires. In addition to the deployment of two scoopers in the first quarter, we have had a multi-mission aircraft, or MMA, stationed in Oklahoma since mid-February under a Bureau of Indian Affairs contract and a second MMA beginning contract operations in New Mexico in March. The deployment of our MMA fleet provides critical surveillance and real-time infrared imagery enhancing situational awareness and wildfire response effectiveness across the regions. This early wildfire activity helped to drive record first quarter revenue of $15.6 million, an increase of 184% over last year. We continue to see the wildfire year starting earlier and lasting longer, which is driving increased demand for our aircraft. It also makes our adoption of year-round readiness even more critical. To date, Wildfires in 2025 have been above average in count and acreage. So far, there have been nearly 22,000 fires in the U.S., and it is quickly approaching 1 million acres burned to date. As of May 1st, per the National Interagency Fire Center, climate prediction center and predictive services outlooks issued in late April indicate above normal temperatures are likely across much of the U.S. through August. with the west, northeast, southern plains, and gulf coast most likely to be above normal. Dryer than normal conditions are expected across the northern half of the west and much of the plains through August as well. The tragic fires in California and North Carolina this year have continued to elicit calls for regulatory change, including the need for more rapid response and ways to minimize contracting lags and budgeting delays. The good news is there has been significant movement recently in Congress where multiple bills have been introduced in the House and the Senate to improve the efficiency and regulatory structure impacting wildfire response. Additionally, we anticipate executive actions as well as additional agency changes that will support and streamline the ability of wildland firefighters to respond quickly and directly to wildfire crises that threaten the country. It's worth noting that fighting wildfire remains a bipartisan effort, with its devastation impacting people of every political affiliation, leading to increased support across party lines. Stay tuned as this develops further. While we expect that there will be beneficial changes at the federal level, there are also changes anticipated at the state level that will enable states to take on a greater role in preparing for and responding to disasters. We continue to actively look for opportunities with states to provide exclusive use of our firefighting assets. We are optimistic that current budgeting and planning cycles will lead to future opportunities. Due to our efforts to continue to increase Bridger's revenue base through exclusive use contracts, we have added two contracts to our portfolio. First, we signed a five-year $20.1 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity, or IDIQ contract with the U.S. Department of the Interior for two air attack and surveillance aircraft for the Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service. This includes fire detection, logistical support, and aerial observation, as well as the provision of information to initial attack aircraft focused on direct and immediate fire suppression. This 120-day exclusive use contract is an excellent example of the trend for government's reliance on guaranteed availability of aerial firefighting assets. Our two Pilatus PC-12s left for Alaska on this contract at the beginning of May. In the second exclusive use contract, Bridger was the successful bidder to provide wildfire detection and mapping for its home state of Montana using a specially modified Dire Kodiak 100 aircraft. The exclusive use agreement includes an initial one-year term with two optional extension years. The contract provides for a minimum of 120 days of availability for a minimum annual value of $648,000 with additional days and flight hours incremental to the minimum annual value. With the award of the Montana contract, this committed seven of our eight Aerotech assets to exclusive use work in 2025. Additionally, this contract marks the first joint effort between Bridger and FMS Aerospace in their installation of the advanced sensor system and operator workstation into the Kodiak. We are excited to establish this as the precedent for collaboration with their in-house design and engineering and Bridger's Part 145 modification capabilities since their acquisition on June 28th of last year. Turning to FMS, they contributed $1.9 million in revenue during the first quarter. In addition to partnering on internal aircraft modifications to solidify our competitive edge, We continue to see a number of contracting opportunities, primarily with the DoD, and active bids that Bridger and FMS are uniquely positioned to respond to. This will enable us to further diversify our customer base and add more year-round revenue growth to the business. A brief update on Ignis Technologies. Since launching its mobile platform to support firefighters in the field back in June of 2024, Several counties, crews, and incident management teams continue piloting the app. IGNIS development of its app, command, connect, and core platforms are all hitting major milestones this year to capture incident management at the team and firefighter level. A major focus on ongoing development is linking Bridger's real-time sensor imagery with the IGNIS application, 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. The software subscription will be based on the core platform and have tiers for organization size and additional application features. Let me also provide an update on the four Spanish Scoopers, which are owned under our partnership agreement with MAB Funding, LLC. The return to service work by our Spanish subsidiary Albacete Aero remains on track. The first aircraft has received its certificate of airworthiness and the second aircraft is expected to receive its certificate imminently. The partnership is looking to deploy both scoopers in Europe for the 2025 wildfire season with final contracting discussions nearing conclusion. Bridger is actively moving forward with training activities. The other two scoopers continue to undergo their respective return to service work and are scheduled to be ready later in 2025. Discussions to move the partnership with MAB forward are also ongoing. Options for Bridger could include an extension of the purchase agreement as well as lease options as we seek to best determine how to bring these high margin assets into the business. Before I turn the call over to Eric, I also want to provide some context to the exciting announcement we made at the aerial firefighting conference recently held in Bordeaux, France. We entered into a memorandum of understanding with positive aviation to become the exclusive North American launch customer to receive their FF 72 aircraft. A state of the art amphibious water scooping firefighting aircraft derived from an ATR 72-600. With rising global demand and a growing shortage of assets, the FF 72 has the potential to be a valuable addition to our fleet looking out into 2029 and beyond. The agreement remains subject to negotiation, but Bridger would serve as the first owner and operator of the FF72 in North America, as well as the exclusive North American hub for sales, marketing, in-service support, modification, certification, and flight crew and mechanic training for the FF72 aircraft. We would have the opportunity to purchase 10 FF72 aircraft with an option to acquire an additional 10 units at a later date. It has been a very exciting start to 2025 and I'm grateful to get to lead this exceptional team. Let me now turn the call back to Eric who will talk about our financial performance in the quarter.