This is direct competition to Caterpillar and John Deere who sell new ag machinery.
Oh it's on... RBA... Shareholders approved a three-for-one stock split, which signals the directors see much more upside to the share's price. Shareholders of record at the close of business on April 24, 2008 will be entitled to receive two additional common shares for each common share they hold at that time.
To give you an idea of the upside potential hidden in RBA, check out their business model of auctioning machinery during a multi-year agriculture boom.
They sell used agriculture equipment at auction, which reduces fixed costs for smaller domestic agriculture players. Foreign agriculture players meanwhile weight around strong buying power to bid auction items higher. An excerpt from a recent piece...
More than 3,000 people from across North America and around the world registered to bid in person and online at the US$42 million heavy equipment auction conducted by Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE and TSX: RBA) in North East, Maryland last week. Over 2,700 construction and transportation equipment items from more than 300 consignors were sold to buyers from as far away as Nigeria, Australia and the U.K. The unreserved public auction set new site records for gross auction proceeds, bidder registrations and internet sales: a record 853 people registered to bid online using Ritchie Bros.' real-time internet bidding service, rbauctionBid-Live, purchasing almost US$11 million of equipment. Ritchie Bros., the world's largest auctioneer of industrial equipment, conducted the public auction at its permanent auction site in North East on April 2 & 3, 2008.
"We had an excellent auction, with good returns for our customers across every class of equipment," said Steve Kriebel, Ritchie Bros. Regional Manager. "The participation of so many out-of-state and out-of-country bidders helped keep prices high and enabled us to deliver strong results for our local consignors. Ninety percent of our sales came from buyers living outside Maryland and almost 25 percent came from buyers living outside the United States."
There are 45 industrial and 86 agricultural unreserved auctions on the current Ritchie Bros. auction calendar. The Company's next unreserved public auction in North East will take place on June 25 & 26, 2008. Go to www.rbauction.com for more information.
Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. is the world's largest auctioneer of industrial equipment, operating through over 110 locations in more than 25 countries around the world. The Company sells, through unreserved public auctions, a broad range of used and unused industrial assets, including equipment, trucks and other assets utilized in the construction, transportation, material handling, mining, forestry, petroleum, marine, real estate, and agricultural industries.
$79.76 (04/15/08)
