Ritchie Bros up 8%

For the third quarter of 2010 equipment auctioneer Ritchie Bros reported gross auction proceeds of US$ 750.9 million and auction revenues of $82.2 million, both 8% increases over the third quarter of 2009.

In the first three quarters of 2010 Ritchie reported gross auction proceeds of US$ 2.5 billion and auction revenue at $269.1 million compared to $2.6 billion and $280.1 million, respectively, in the first nine months of 2009. Net earnings for the first three quarters of 2010 were $52.4 million compared to net earnings for the same period in 2009 of $71.6 million.

Ritchie generated the revenue at 157 industrial auctions in 15 countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Central America, Asia and Australia. Around 247,000 bidder registrations in the first nine months of 2010 translated into more than 71,000 successful buyers, much the same as the previous year's 9 month period. More than 213,000 lots were sold on behalf of about 31,000 consignors compared to close to 209,000 lots for more than 27,000 consignors in the first nine months of 2009.

Online bidders bought more than $620 million-worth of equipment, cranes, trucks, etc. in the first nine months of 2010, compared to more than $600 million in the first nine months of 2009.

Commenting on the performance Peter Blake, Ritchie CEO, said, "While our year to date performance lags behind our 2009 performance, our third quarter auction revenues represented the highest third quarter results in our history and reflected solid gross auction proceeds growth and a strong auction revenue rate. Although we are very pleased with our performance in the third quarter of this year, we are still seeing considerable uncertainty in our major marketplaces and we believe the used equipment market has not yet returned to a balanced state. As a result, we continue to believe that we will face challenging market conditions for the remainder of 2010, particularly in the U.S."