TacticScaleWhat Bristow Does & How It Makes Money (VTOL)
Updated October 2026 · reflects Bristow's latest reported financials
Helicopter and vertical flight services for offshore energy and governments. It earns fees from offshore energy companies and government agencies for helicopter transport, search and rescue, and related flight services, which it provides with its own aircraft and trained crews.
How Bristow makes money
It earns fees from offshore energy companies and government agencies for helicopter transport, search and rescue, and related flight services, which it provides with its own aircraft and trained crews. It also makes money from leasing aircraft to other operators, selling parts, and providing maintenance, training and charter services.
What Bristow does
Bristow Group is a Houston-based helicopter operator founded in 1948. Its core business is flying crews to and from offshore oil and gas installations. It also provides search-and-rescue and medevac services for government agencies. The company reports three segments: Offshore Energy Services, Government Services, and Other Services. Its main markets are the United Kingdom, Norway, the United States and Nigeria, and it also operates in other countries. Besides flying, Bristow supplies specialized helicopters along with trained flight and maintenance crews. It dry-leases aircraft to third-party operators and sells parts. It also offers logistics, maintenance, training, fixed wing transport, unmanned systems, and scheduled passenger and charter services. Much of its demand comes from offshore energy activity and government contracts.
Products & services
- Offshore personnel helicopter transportation
- Search and rescue (SAR) services
- Medevac services
- Fixed wing transportation
- Unmanned systems
- Aircraft dry leasing and parts sales
What is Bristow worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, Bristow's most-likely value is about $52 versus a recent price near $41 (27% below fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$29) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Fairly priced — no edge.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
Price sits in the normal range — fair value isn't actionable here; it earns its keep only when price drops below the no-growth floor, or runs to roughly double the optimistic case.
⚠ High leverage — net debt is 5.7× annual cash flow. Net debt is subtracted from this fair value, but refinancing at higher rates, principal timing, and share dilution aren’t modeled — the equity can be worth far less if cash flow weakens.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →
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