VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers agreed to acquire AssetNation Inc., a leading online marketplace and solutions provider for surplus and salvage assets. Ritchie Bros. intends to continue to grow AssetNation's core business as well as to leverage its e-commerce expertise and technology platform to develop and launch unique new services for equipment owners whose buying and selling preferences may not be met by the company's live unreserved auctions.
AssetNation uses its technology platform, strong management and employee team, deep e-commerce expertise and family of global online marketplaces to support buyers and sellers of surplus and salvage assets. It is active in a number of industry verticals including energy, fleet and distribution, insurance and government. AssetNation is a privately held company headquartered in Houston, with offices in Pittsburgh, Mexico City and London.
“We are very excited to be welcoming AssetNation into the Ritchie Bros. family,” said Peter Blake, Ritchie Bros. CEO. “Our values are aligned and we share the same passion for bringing fairness and transparency to the equipment market. Our success in building the world's largest equipment auction company through our flagship unreserved auctions has given us a unique understanding of the world's equipment owners. We intend to leverage this market knowledge and the power of our brand not only to fuel the growth of AssetNation's business, but also to develop additional solutions that will expand our addressable market and help us meet the diverse and evolving preferences of a segment of the equipment market that we have not traditionally reached with our unreserved auctions.”
The new solutions Ritchie Bros. plans to develop, along with other capabilities the company will add with partners, will be unique in the equipment industry. They will expand the Ritchie Bros. service offering and provide a transparent and efficient way for the non-auction segment of the market to buy and sell equipment. The new services will not be auction services and will align with the company's mission to create compelling business solutions that enable the world's builders to easily and confidently exchange equipment.
“The acquisition is a validation of AssetNation's efforts to bring fairness and integrity to the surplus and salvage asset markets and makes good business sense,” said AssetNation CEO Dave Dawson. “We have invested over 10 years in developing a robust technology platform for online marketplaces and as part of the Ritchie Bros. team, we will develop and launch exciting new buying and selling solutions for equipment owners in the non-auction segment. In addition, the strength of the Ritchie Bros. brand will enhance the growth of our existing online marketplaces.”
Ritchie Bros. has agreed to acquire 100 percent of the issued and outstanding shares of AssetNation in an all-cash deal valued at approximately U.S. $64 million. The transaction, which closed on May 16, was funded mainly by bank debt and is expected to have an immaterial impact on Ritchie Bros. financial results in 2012 and 2013. Pagemill Partners acted as sole financial advisor to Ritchie Bros. and Perkins Coie LLP acted as legal advisor. AssetNation was purchased from Spire Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm.
Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers is the world's largest industrial auctioneer. It has more than 110 locations in more than 25 countries, including 44 auction sites worldwide.
