The financial report for the first half of 2024 for Bridger Aerospace has been released. In the report, the Company stated that it had a net loss of $30 million during the first half of 2024 and a long-term debt of $204 million at the middle of 2024.
So, during the three and a half years of its operation, the Company has lost $6 million in 2021, $42 million in 2022, $77 million in 2023, and $30 million in the first half of 2024. That’s $155 million in net loses to date, which to most Montanans (but maybe not to Montana’s oligarchs) would be considered “real money.”
Tim Sheehy resigned as CEO, President, and Director to run for Montana’s US senate seat now held by Jon Tester on July 1, 2024. You could say the loses are not all Tim’s fault. The company was set up by Tim’s brother, Matt, and a group of investors (some from Big Sky and some from New York) to make Tim, Matt, and the investors rich. While the company is depending on the scientific truth of the axiom “Climate Change is Increasing the Risk from Wildfires,” the company was apparently set up with a complicated and aggressive structure that did not leave enough room to financially accommodate weather variations from year to year, which is another primary effect of climate change.
The $30 million lost in the first half of 2024 is particularly worrying in that most aerial firefighting occurs (and revenue is generated) in the second (Summer) and third (Fall) quarters of the year. Bridger’s common stock price has lost over 50% of its value in the last year (while the S&P 500 is up 26% for the year) which makes it difficult to raise needed operating cash by selling stock.
As of July 30, 2024, there were outstanding 53,165,227 shares of Bridger Common Stock. Tim Sheehy owns 10,395,798 of those shares (19.6% of the total) and his brother Matt owns 10,316,422 of those shares (19.4% of the total). So,the brothers own 39 percent of the Company. Blackstone Inc. owns 18.1% of the Company subject to this caveat: “Each of the Blackstone entities described in this footnote and Mr. Schwarzman (other than to the extent it or he directly holds securities as described herein) may be deemed to beneficially own the securities directly or indirectly controlled by such Blackstone entities or him, but each disclaims beneficial ownership of such securities.” Steven Schwarzman is the Chairman of Blackstone Group and a major Trump and Republican senate candidate supporter.
The Company continues to warn potential investors that “We have a substantial amount of debt and servicing future interests or principal payments may impair our ability to operate our business or require us to change our business strategy to accommodate the repayment of our debt. Our ability to operate our business is limited by certain agreements governing our debt, including restrictions on the use of the loan proceeds, operational and financial covenants, and restrictions on additional indebtedness. If we are unable to comply with the financial covenants or other terms of our debt agreements, we may become subject to cross-default or cross-acceleration provisions that could result in our debt being declared immediately due and payable, which could prolong the substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.”
At the end of 2023, the Company had 148 employees. We are all hopeful that the Company will pull out of its losing streak to continue to be able to provide needed firefighting services and safeguard the jobs Bridger Aerospace provides.
Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street reporter Gretchen Morgenson and her team have recently reported that Bridger Aerospace business units have unfortunately lost Federal cerifications that would have given the firm advantages in competing for US governement firefighting work:
“A Bridger spokeswoman said in a statement that the certification of the Bridger unit as a socially and economically disadvantaged company was an employee mistake that went undiscovered for four years. . . . Bridger Air Tanker had certified itself as a “Small Disadvantaged Business,” its contracts show, and a spokesperson for the SBA confirmed it. It is no longer self-certified as a disadvantaged business.”
“Mountain Air received the contracts as a self-certified small business, [Sheehy’s campaign manager] Martin said, not as a service-disabled veteran-owned business. The SBA spokesperson said Mountain Air is no longer self-certified as a service-disabled veteran-owned business.”
The article shows that Sheehy’s aerial firefighting business (that has been paying him an excessive salary) was financed by the billionaire class and that he continues to recieve massive campaign contributions from them:
“For a contest far from Wall Street, Sheehy’s campaign has attracted the attention of some of finance’s biggest names, including Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder of Citadel LLC, the hedge fund and trading powerhouse. Last fall, Griffin donated $5 million to a Super PAC called “More Jobs, Less Government” that has spent almost $11 million this year, or 96% of its receipts, supporting Sheehy, Federal Election Commission records show. They also show that Stephen Schwarzman, the billionaire co-founder of The Blackstone Group, a New York City-based private-equity giant that invested in Bridger, has given $5 million to the “More Jobs” Super PAC over the past year.”
No wonder that the article is titled “Tim Sheehy may turn the Senate red. But is he really a successful businessman?” Now that the source of Sheehy’s quickly disappearing wealth has been disclosed, do you think he is?
Here is how a a veteran financial expert and Gallatin County resident sized up the situation in the article: “Bridger Aerospace has been a success for insiders and the Park Avenue billionaires at Blackstone. . . . Meanwhile, the company’s shareholders and bondholders are holding the bag. How does that help hardworking Montanans and their families?”