Bombardier Affirms 2025 Objectives are on Track During 2022 Investor Day

MONTRÉAL, Feb. 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bombardier (TSX: BBD.B) will host a virtual 2022 Investor Day this morning to provide an update on the execution of its 2025 financial targets outlined a year ago. The company’s leadership will review Bombardier’s strong performance in 2021 and provide an in-depth look at the execution of its strategic plan and the outlook through 2025.

Éric Martel, President and Chief Executive Officer, will be joined by Bart Demosky, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Jean-Christophe Gallagher, Executive Vice President, Services and Support, and Corporate Strategy in outlining the progress made on the four key pillars of Bombardier’s 2025 plan and provide an update on the steps ahead.

"When we laid out our five-year strategy last year, we set out clear financial and socio-environmental objectives that will ensure Bombardier thrives as a company focused on designing, manufacturing and servicing the world’s best business jets. Today, we are exactly where we wanted to be. Bombardier is a stronger, more predictable company, well on its way toward delivering on our 2025 plan,” said Martel.

"Our fantastic cash performance last year is giving us momentum in debt repayment and is a significant step toward our 2025 free-cash-flow objective of more than $500 million,”¹ added Martel. "As we grow our earnings, our position will continue to improve. Over and above the $500 million target, we are in parallel building a recurring, incremental capital allocation envelope of up to $600 million per year. This added flexibility would be available to invest in strategic projects or further balance sheet deleveraging. As we get to 2025, we will be well placed to balance both servicing our debt and investing in our products and people.”²

Improving balance sheet and liquidity profile

In the coming years, the company will prioritize debt reduction to continue deleveraging the business and build a more resilient company. On the back of a strong foundation forged in 2021, Bombardier was already able to launch repayment of an incremental $400 million of debt, utilizing cash from the balance sheet, and will continue to be opportunistic in its deleveraging strategy, targeting a minimum of 24 months maturity runway and continuing to work to optimize liquidity.

Aftermarket growth steadily reaching significant milestones

With a fleet of approximately 5,000 aircraft globally, Bombardier is steadily growing its share of the lucrative aftermarket business. The aftermarket team delivered a 25% jump in revenues year over year in 2021. In Q4 2021, the business’s revenues reached $363 million, 44% higher than Q4 2020 and 17% higher than in Q4 2019. With business aviation flight hours recovering to surpass pre-pandemic levels and a number of facility expansions under way or reaching completion, aftermarket revenues are expected to continue to grow at a double-digit CAGR, putting the company well on track to reach the goal of $2 billion in aftermarket revenues by 2025. Jean-Christophe Gallagher will provide an overview and data on the decisions the company has made so far to grow the segment, as well as its strong plan for the coming years.

Global 7500 jet margin growing, and overall cost structure improvement on plan

With the imminent delivery of the 100^th Global 7500 aircraft, the industry flagship continues to redefine the business aviation landscape with significant market acceptance, particularly among fleet operators. In 2021, the program was a positive adjusted EBITDA contributor. The company will outline the continued positive outlook for this program ahead, with expectations to more than double its adjusted EBITDA contribution between 2021 and 2025.

Overall in 2021, the company reached $135 million in cost savings, surpassing its objective by $35 million and bringing it firmly on track towards its 2023 objective of $400 million in recurring savings. Bart Demosky will further outline the current financial performance of the company, its strategy to meaningfully grow earnings over the next years, in line with targets, and the company’s flexible path forward in terms of strategic capital allocation.

"With our core key indicators and plan elements trending positively, our 2025 adjusted EBITDA target of approximately $1.5 billion is well in sight,”¹ added Martel. "Our leadership team is poised to deliver on everything we control, without requiring additional lift from the market. That said, the market is in great shape today and we expect to compete and maintain our share, while keeping the cost structure we have built.”

Bombardier 2025 Objectives Tracking to Plan

Webcast details

Bombardier’s 2022 virtual Investor Day will begin at 9 a.m. (ET) on February 24, 2022. After the presentation, the leadership team will be available to answer questions from analysts and institutional investors. All the information on how to watch the webcast live or dial in to the Q&A session, as well as the Investor day presentations, are available on this webpage.

About Bombardier
Bombardier is a global leader in aviation, focused on designing, manufacturing and servicing the world's most exceptional business jets. Bombardier’s Challenger and Global aircraft families are renowned for their cutting-edge innovation, cabin design, performance and reliability. Bombardier has a worldwide fleet of approximately 5,000 aircraft in service with a wide variety of multinational corporations, charter and fractional ownership providers, governments and private individuals. Bombardier aircraft are also trusted around the world in special-mission roles.

Headquartered in Montréal, Québec, Bombardier operates aerostructure, assembly and completion facilities in Canada, the United States and Mexico. The company’s robust customer support network includes facilities in strategic locations in the United States and Canada, as well as in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, the UAE, Singapore, China and an Australian facility opening in 2022.

For corporate news and information, including Bombardier’s Environmental, Social and Governance report, visit bombardier.com. Learn more about Bombardier’s industry-leading products and customer service network at businessaircraft.bombardier.com. Follow us on Twitter @Bombardier.

Bombardier, Challenger, Global and Global 7500 are registered trademarks of Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries.

1. Non-GAAP financial measure. A non-GAAP financial measure is not a standardized financial measure under the financial reporting framework used to prepare our financial statements and might not be comparable to similar financial measures used by other issuers. Refer to the Non-GAAP and other financial measures section in the MD&A of the Corporation’s financial report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, available on SEDAR, for definitions of these metrics. This information is included by reference.
2. This press release includes a range of forward-looking statements. See the forward-looking statements disclaimer at the end of this press release as well as the Guidance and forward-looking statements section in the Overview section in the MD&A of the Corporation’s financial report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, available on SEDAR, for details regarding the assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based.
3. Non-GAAP ratio. A non-GAAP financial ratio is not a standardized financial measure under the financial reporting framework used to prepare our financial statements and might not be comparable to similar financial measures used by other issuers. Refer to the Non-GAAP and other financial measures section in the MD&A of the Corporation’s financial report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 available on SEDAR, for definitions of these metrics. This information is included by reference.
   

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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

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By their nature, forward-looking statements require management to make assumptions and are subject to important known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause our actual results in future periods to differ materially from forecast results set forth in forward-looking statements. While management considers these assumptions to be reasonable and appropriate based on information currently available, there is risk that they may not be accurate. The assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements made in this press release include the following material assumptions: growth of the business aviation market and Corporation’s share of such market; proper identification of recurring cost savings and executing on our cost reduction plan; optimization of our real estate portfolio, including through the sale or other transaction in respect of real estate assets on favorable terms; and access to working capital facilities on market terms. For additional information, including on other assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements made in this press release, refer to the Forward-looking statements - Assumptions section in the MD&A of the Corporation’s financial report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. Given the impact of the changing circumstances surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including because of the emergence of variants, and the related response from the Corporation, governments (federal, provincial and municipal), regulatory authorities, businesses, suppliers, customers, counterparties and third-party service providers, there is inherently more uncertainty associated with the Corporation’s assumptions as compared to prior years.

Certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, risks associated with general economic conditions, risks associated with our business environment (such as risks associated with the financial condition of business aircraft customers; trade policy; increased competition; political instability and force majeure events or global climate change), operational risks (such as risks related to developing new products and services; development of new business; order backlog; the continuing transition to a business aviation focused company; the certification of products and services; the execution of orders; pressures on cash flows and capital expenditures based on seasonality and cyclicality; execution of our strategy, productivity enhancements, operational efficiencies, restructuring and cost reduction initiatives; doing business with partners; product performance warranty and casualty claim losses; regulatory and legal proceedings; environmental, health and safety risks; dependence on certain customers, contracts and suppliers; supply chain risks; human resources including the global availability of a skilled workforce; reliance on information systems; reliance on and protection of intellectual property rights; reputation risks; risk management; tax matters; and adequacy of insurance coverage), financing risks (such as risks related to liquidity and access to capital markets; retirement benefit plan risk; exposure to credit risk; substantial debt and interest payment requirements; restrictive debt covenants; reliance on debt management and interest cost reduction strategies; and reliance on government support), market risks (such as foreign currency fluctuations; changing interest rates; increases in commodity prices; and Inflation rate fluctuations). For more details, see the Risks and uncertainties section in Other in the MD&A of the Corporation’s financial report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. Any one or more of the foregoing factors may be exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and may have a significantly more severe impact on the Corporation’s business, results of operations and financial condition than in the absence of such pandemic. As a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic, additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: risks related to the impact and effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on economic conditions and financial markets and the resulting impact on our business, operations, capital resources, liquidity, financial condition, margins, prospects and results; uncertainty regarding the magnitude and length of economic disruption as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting effects on the demand environment for our products and services; uncertainty regarding market and economic recovery in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic; emergency measures and restrictions imposed by public health authorities or governments, fiscal and monetary policy responses by governments and financial institutions; disruptions to global supply chain, suppliers, customers, workforce, counterparties and third-party service providers; further disruptions to operations, orders and deliveries; technology, privacy, cyber security and reputational risks; and other unforeseen adverse events.

Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors that may affect future growth, results and performance is not exhaustive and undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. Other risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we presently believe are not material could also cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements set forth herein reflect management’s expectations as at the date of this report and are subject to change after such date. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, we expressly disclaim any intention, and assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.