Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers announces strong third quarter results; challenging economic times generate demand for unreserved auctions
biz.yahoo.com
Thursday October 30, 7:00 am ET
VANCOUVER, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated (NYSE and TSX: RBA) announces record net earnings for the nine months ended September 30, 2008 of $74.3 million, or $0.70 per diluted weighted average share and adjusted net earnings of $67.0 million, or $0.63 per diluted share. The Company defines adjusted net earnings as financial statement net earnings excluding the after-tax effect of sales of excess properties. This compares to adjusted net earnings of $59.0 million, or $0.56 per diluted share for the nine months ended September 30, 2007, representing adjusted net earnings growth of 14% over the first nine months of 2007. The Company conducted 134 unreserved industrial auctions in 12 countries throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia during the first nine months of 2008 and set 10 regional gross auction proceeds records during the period. All dollar amounts are presented in United States dollars and all share and per share information reflects the three-for-one split of the Company's common shares that occurred at the close of business on April 24, 2008.
Gross auction proceeds for the nine months ended September 30, 2008 were $2.71 billion, 17% higher than gross auction proceeds for the first nine months of 2007. Auction revenues increased 19% to $273.1 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2008 compared to the first nine months of 2007. The Company's auction revenue rate (auction revenues as a percentage of gross auction proceeds) was 10.07% in 2008, compared to 9.93% in the first nine months of 2007.
During the third quarter of 2008, the Company achieved gross auction proceeds of $767.7 million, 15% higher than the comparable quarter in 2007. Auction revenues were $75.9 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2008, compared to $67.2 million for the third quarter of 2007. The Company's auction revenue rate for the third quarter of 2008 was 9.89%. Net earnings for the three months ended September 30, 2008 were $11.9 million, or $0.11 per diluted share.
During the first nine months of 2008, the Company had almost 198,000 bidder registrations at its unreserved industrial auctions, of which almost 60,000 were successful buyers. In the first nine months of 2007, the Company had more than 183,000 bidder registrations, of which over 59,000 were buyers.
Ritchie Bros. worked with a large number of truck, equipment and other asset sellers in the first nine months of 2008, selling almost 178,000 lots from over 27,000 consignments. In the first nine months of 2007, Ritchie Bros. sold over 197,000 lots from over 25,000 consignments.
Although the Company's auctions varied greatly in size over the 12 months ended September 30, 2008, the average Ritchie Bros. industrial auction attracted over 1,400 bidders who competed for almost 1,300 lots consigned by 191 consignors, generating average gross auction proceeds per industrial auction of $18.1 million (12 months ended September 30, 2007 - $15.3 million).
Over $500 million worth of trucks, equipment, and other assets were sold using the Company's rbauctionBid-Live internet bidding service during the first nine months of 2008. This is an increase of 23% over the online gross auction proceeds during the first nine months of 2007. More than 93,000 customers from almost 180 countries have now registered and received approval to use rbauctionBid-Live. Internet bidders represented approximately 28% of the total registered bidders at Ritchie Bros. industrial auctions for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2008, and they were the buyer or runner up bidder on approximately 29% of the lots offered online at these auctions. Since launching its internet bidding service in 2002, the Company has now sold over $2.3 billion of trucks, equipment, and other assets over the internet.
"We're pleased to see the results of our long-term growth strategy reflected in our year-to-date performance and believe we're on track to achieve our earnings targets for 2008," said Peter Blake, Ritchie Bros. CEO. "For decades we've been helping equipment owners create almost instant liquidity by selling their underutilized assets at our unreserved public auctions. As the world's largest industrial auctioneer, selling more used equipment to on site and on line bidders than anyone else, with offices in 25 countries and customers in more than 200, we're uniquely positioned to reach buyers from around the world and help our customers sell their equipment quickly, efficiently and for global fair market value. With so many companies facing liquidity challenges right now, our value proposition is more compelling than ever." |
