Ritchie Bros. Sales Set New Record in 2011

In addition, Ritchie Bros.’ revised administrative fee structure took effect on July 1, 2011. The new fee structure eliminated certain fees and expanded the scope of its administrative fee charged to buyers to address the cost of providing the new and significantly enhanced buyer services offered at the Company’s auctions, as well as other high value buyer-focused initiatives launched in recent years.

Monthly auction results now available
Starting today the Company will be disclosing monthly aggregate auction results and selected operating metrics on its website, www.rbauction.com (in the “About Ritchie Bros.” section under “For Investors”). These results include gross auction proceeds, bidder registrations, number of buyers, number of consignors and number of lots for each month beginning with January 2010. Results will be updated each month and will be available within five days after month end. Twenty-four months of historic data are available today and the Company intends to increase this to 10 years of data in early 2012.

Mr. Blake remarked: “Ritchie Bros. is committed to operating with transparency – it is a cornerstone of our unreserved auctions and helps us create value for our customers. We are now taking steps to increase the amount of information available to the investment community and other industry watchers; we want to create more transparency for this important constituency to help them better understand our business. Because we sell more used equipment and trucks than any other organization in the world, we think this information will be valuable to a wide range of industry watchers. A word of caution however: our business is seasonal and lumpy, making it extremely variable from one month to the next. Results are best analyzed on an annual or rolling 12 month basis. We urge users not to draw conclusions from our performance for any individual month.”

Dividends
Ritchie Bros. increased its quarterly cash dividend in 2011, and paid out total dividends during the year of approximately $46 million compared to $43 million in 2010.

Upcoming auctions
There are currently 87 unreserved auctions on the 2012 Ritchie Bros. auction calendar at www.rbauction.com, which commences with an auction in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 27, to be followed by a two-day auction in Houston, Texas on February 8 & 9, and a five-day auction in Orlando, Florida on February 14-18, 2012.

Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE and TSX: RBA) is the world’s largest industrial auctioneer, selling more equipment to on-site and online bidders than any other company in the world. Ritchie Bros. offers services that enable the world’s builders to easily and confidently exchange equipment. The company conducts hundreds of unreserved public auctions each year, selling a range of used and unused equipment, trucks and other assets utilized in the construction, transportation, agricultural, material handling, mining, forestry, petroleum and marine industries. Ritchie Bros. has over 110 locations in more than 25 countries, including 43 auction sites worldwide. The company maintains a website at www.rbauction.com and sponsors an equipment wiki at www.RitchieWiki.com.