Ritchie Bros. to Acquire Online Marketplace AssetNation

Ritchie Bros. agrees to acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding shares of AssetNation in an all cash deal valued at approximately $64 million

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers today announced that it has 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 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.

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.

"We believe that adding AssetNation’s best-in-class technology and deep e-commerce expertise and leveraging those strengths to develop exciting new services will allow us to build on our position as the world’s largest seller of used heavy equipment and trucks and to attract new customers," said Ritchie Bros. Chief Executive Officer Peter Blake.

"In addition to facilitating the development and launch of our new services, the acquisition is also expected to generate growth for our core unreserved auction business," said Blake. "Many of AssetNation’s customer relationships exist in industry verticals that are complementary to Ritchie Bros.’ core business, particularly in the energy, fleet and distribution, insurance and government sectors. We believe that a combined service offering will satisfy the needs of these customers more effectively."

Ritchie Bros. has agreed to acquire 100 percent of the issued and outstanding shares of AssetNation in an all cash deal valued at approximately $64 million. The transaction is expected to close on or about May 15, 2012, and is subject to customary closing conditions. The transaction will be 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.

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