LAS VEGAS, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers
(NYSE and TSX: RBA), the world's largest industrial auctioneer, conducted an
unreserved public auction on August 15, 2008 in Las Vegas with auction
proceeds in excess of US$30 million. More than US$29 million of trucks and
equipment (representing 95 percent of the total gross auction proceeds) was
sold to buyers from outside the state of Nevada with 41 percent of items
available for sale online being sold to internet purchasers. There were 1,383
online and on-site bidders from 26 countries, including 46 U.S. states,
participating in the unreserved public auction.
'There was a large crowd on site on auction day and very active bidding
both here and over the internet,' said Jim Rotlisberger, Ritchie Bros.
Regional Manager. 'We set some exciting internet bidding records for our site,
with 50 percent of the registered bidders participating online -- live and in
real time, using rbauctionBid-Live -- and 146 internet buyers purchasing
US$12.5 million of trucks and equipment. Internet bidders were winner or
runner up bidder on 53 percent of the lots available online.'
American Asphalt & Grading Company, one of the largest speciality civil
contractors in Las Vegas, consigned close to 140 of the more than 1,000
equipment items sold in Friday's unreserved public auction.
'We had been hit with the downturn in residential development in Las
Vegas, so we decided it made more sense to sell some of our equipment with
Ritchie Bros. rather than pay for it to sit idle,' said Robert A. Albano,
President and CEO of American Asphalt which specializes in grading,
residential and commercial construction, crushing, and asphalt paving and
paving maintenance services. 'We were really pleased with the results on
auction day.'
'We've worked with Ritchie Bros. for a number of years now, as part of our
normal business operations,' said Mr. Albano. 'One of their greatest
advantages is their ability to draw such a large crowd from outside the United
States -- whether they are bidding over the internet or at the auction site.
The fact that the equipment goes outside of our local market helps
tremendously when the economy here is weak. That international interest in our
equipment makes all the difference.'
One of the companies to take advantage of the Ritchie Bros.
