Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated (NYSE:RBA) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

James Kessler: Yeah. No. So — and Sameer will jump in, but just at the highest level, for our partners on the auto side, what we need to achieve is operational consistency against our commitments that we’ve made to them. And look, there’s very little CapEx that has to be invested to do that. This is all around execution, consistency, clarity and accountability at the field level. So I’m not expecting to be able to retain and grow capital. to invest capital to be able to do that. I think as we think about real estate and a financial decision to make around lease versus owned, that’s going to be a financial decision that we make, that’s best for the company. But and the two were disconnected from having to go out and get business from our auto partners. Sameer, to have anything that you want to.

Sameer Rathod: Yeah. No, I think you hit it, Jim. Michael, at a high level, purchasing land, having land is not a prerequisite for meeting our SLAs. The capital intensity to improve consistency, relatively minor, the purchases we are making is a financial decision, just lease versus own economics, that sort of thing.

Michael Feniger: Fair enough. And just lastly, just curious, Jim, Sameer, like, in the last towards the end of October, maybe even what you’re seeing in early days in November. Just is there — has there been any step function changes when you think of used equipment values, either on the auto side or either on the construction and transportation as we kind of start to look to finish off the year. If there was anything you noticed through the quarter and towards the end and to now. Thank you.

Sameer Rathod: Yeah, Michael. Great question. So if you think about the month of October, used equipment pricing year-over-year for construction in the U.S. was down, call it, 6% and transportation was down 19%. We’re still above 2019 levels by a healthy amount. But I wouldn’t say there was a step function change in the month of October.

Michael Feniger: Perfect. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Steve Hansen, Raymond James. Steve, please go ahead.

Steven Hansen: Thanks a lot guys. I’m not sure if it was covered. I might have missed it earlier in the remarks, but can you perhaps speak to some of your efforts thus far on the whole car market and the aftermath agreement that you laid last quarter or two.

James Kessler: Yeah. So Steve, just as we talked about probably a couple of months ago, very early on in our stages, we have done our strategy planning for it. And are early stages of execution against that. So from a in a number standpoint, nothing in the past quarter. So something more in 2024 than anything that’s going to help 2023.

Steven Hansen: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Larry De Maria, William Blair. Larry, please go ahead.

Lawrence De Maria: Thanks. Good afternoon, everybody.

Sameer Rathod: Hey, Larry.

Lawrence De Maria: Hey, Sameer. Jim, two questions. First, any color or timing on the filling out of some of the C-level positions that are open? And secondly, you talked about the SLAs, which are a nice change, obviously. Just for clarity and for a little bit more information, are they being rolled out staggered by customer? Are they fully rolled out? And you mentioned better pickup times. What are some of the other things that will get better over time and potentially towards more business coming in?