ITEM 1: BUSINESS
Company Overview
Established in 1958, the Company is a leading, omnichannel marketplace and trusted provider of value-added insights, services and transaction solutions for buyers and sellers of commercial assets and vehicles worldwide. Through our global network of auction sites and digital platform, we serve customers worldwide across a variety of asset classes, including automotive, construction, commercial transportation, government surplus, lifting and material handling, energy, mining and agriculture.
Our marketplace brands include Ritchie Bros., the world's largest auctioneer of commercial assets and vehicles offering online bidding, and IAA, a leading global digital marketplace connecting vehicle buyers and sellers. Our portfolio of brands also includes Rouse Services (“Rouse”), which provides complete end-to-end asset management and market data-driven intelligence; SmartEquip, an innovative technology platform that supports customers' management of the equipment lifecycle and integrates parts procurement with both original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) and dealers; and VeriTread, an online marketplace for heavy haul transport.
Our sectors are organized by asset class and include automotive, commercial, construction and transportation (“CC&T”), and other. Automotive includes automobiles, including passenger vehicles and buses. CC&T includes equipment needed for earth moving, lift and material handling, as well as vocational and commercial trucks and trailers. Other primarily includes assets and equipment in the agricultural, forestry and energy industries, government surplus assets, smaller consumer recreational transportation items and parts sold in our vehicle dismantling business until June 21, 2025, the date of its deconsolidation in connection with the LKQ SYNETIQ transaction described in Part II, Item 8: Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 4 Loss on Deconsolidation and Recognition of Equity Method Investment. Each respective sector includes salvage and non-salvage transactions.
Our customers are primarily automobile insurance companies, end users, dealers, fleet owners, and OEMs of commercial assets and vehicles.
We have a global presence, with operations primarily in the United States, Canada, Australia and across Europe, and employ approximately 8,000 full-time employees worldwide, of which approximately 68% are located in the United States.
The Company is incorporated in Canada under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario).
Macroeconomic Conditions and Industry Trends
Various macroeconomic conditions and trends, including inflationary pressures, actual or potential tariffs, and volatility in interest rates affect our business, GTV and operating costs. Our GTV is further influenced by unit volume growth and changes in average selling prices, which in part are driven by prevailing market conditions.
CC&T
Industry volumes are influenced by a broad range of factors, including macroeconomic conditions, demographic trends, government initiatives, and infrastructure investment. Structural shifts in the market—such as the expansion of data centers, increased manufacturing activity, and re‑shoring efforts—also play a significant role in shaping demand. During the fourth quarter, we observed early indications of improving seller confidence, supported by stabilizing values for used equipment, a more favorable interest rate environment, and continued strength in large-scale construction projects, including civil infrastructure and mega projects.
Automotive
Industry unit volume growth is influenced by both the total number of accidents and the proportion of those accidents classified as total losses. Accident frequency is primarily driven by the number of vehicles in operation and aggregate miles traveled. A substantial percentage of these accidents are insured, and insurer involvement plays an important role in determining whether a vehicle is deemed a total loss. At the same time, underinsured accidents can create headwinds for volumes, as insufficient coverage may delay or reduce total‑loss designations and thereby limit the flow of vehicles into salvage channels.
Total‑loss determinations are shaped by several factors, including used vehicle pricing, vehicle age, design complexity, technology content, and repair costs. In 2025, the inflation differential between automotive repair costs and used vehicle prices continued to narrow, though it remains positive. This dynamic supports a higher percentage of total‑loss determinations relative to overall accidents, creating a favorable environment for salvage activity despite the moderating effect of underinsured incidents.
Competition
We encounter different competitors by region, sector, and service across the entire suite of solutions we offer to our partners and customers.
Competition in our CC&T sector for transaction solutions is highly fragmented geographically and by transaction format. We compete for sellers against online and physical auctioneers, brokers, OEMs and equipment dealers offering trade-in services. Some of our customers, including large fleet owners, may seek private sales instead of third-party transaction solutions. The market is constantly evolving and subject to change driven by new and existing competitors and technology-enabled selling solutions for sellers.
In the automotive sector, we provide services to the salvage and non-salvage segments; our sellers on the salvage segment are comprised of primarily insurance companies seeking transaction solutions for their damaged or low-value vehicles. We primarily compete with Copart, Inc. and several other independent used vehicle auction companies. In the non-salvage sale segment, we compete with Adesa, Manheim, ACV Auctions and other independent auctioneers offering online and live wholesale solutions. Our performance against service level agreements and gross returns to drive optimal net returns is critical to our success as we compete.
Competitive Advantages
•Global platform: Our global platform allows us to connect buyers and sellers, offer insights and value-added services for commercial assets and vehicles through our omnichannel marketplace, both digitally and through our auction sites worldwide. We offer unmatched choice and flexibility, tailoring transaction solutions to suit our customers' diverse and changing needs. We also offer our customers a full spectrum of value-added services, such as transportation and logistics, appraisal, inspection, refurbishing, titling, loan payoff, and financial services.
•Trusted local customer relationships: Our sales teams act as trusted advisors in their long-standing customer relationships. We take a long-term view, offering clear transparent communication and unparalleled solutions to simplify our customers' experience and cultivate lasting partnerships.
•Data, insights and services: Rich data and analytics are a cornerstone to providing the best customer experience. We invest in data science to deliver asset value predictions, generate user leads, prioritize marketing investments, interpret price trends, and more. Proprietary machine vision technology combined with proprietary asset pricing models are used internally to set internal target values and optimize marketplace operations and externally to provide our customers with reliable asset values. In addition, Rouse is the leading provider of construction equipment rental benchmarks, and construction equipment valuations to lenders, rental companies, contractors, and dealers. Our business model is built upon an extensive data ecosystem, proprietary analytics, data science techniques, and trusted customer relationships rooted in service and confidentiality.
•Global presence: We achieve exceptional agility with our extensive global network, which enables us to be closer in proximity to our customers. This proximity helps minimize transportation costs and provides our customers with the choice of care, custody, and control of assets.
•Flexibility of yard space and teammates: Teammates working across different businesses and sectors can come together across multiple locations to meet our customers' needs when necessary. Specifically, in a catastrophic event impacting our automotive sector customers, we can increase the speed of our response and avoid incremental operating costs by leveraging all of our teammates and any unused capacity across our global network of locations.
•Global buyer base and demand engine: Our global presence and sophisticated approach to driving buyer demand allows us to generate deep pools of liquidity for transactions, enabling global market pricing for commercial assets and vehicle sellers and helping to deliver the best price realization. We serve customers in approximately 170 countries across a variety of sectors and continuously source and cultivate new buyers around the world.
•Brand: Our well-established brands are well recognized and have a loyal customer base. The Company's marketplace brands include Ritchie Bros., the world's largest auctioneer of commercial assets and vehicles, and IAA, a leading global digital marketplace connecting vehicle buyers and sellers. RB Global's portfolio of brands also includes Rouse, which provides complete end-to-end asset management and market data-driven intelligence, SmartEquip, an innovative technology platform that supports customers' management of the equipment lifecycle and integrates parts procurement with both OEMs and dealers and VeriTread, an online marketplace for heavy haul transport.
Growth Strategy
Our growth strategy is anchored in a commitment to put our partners and customers first and consistently exceed expectations. By delivering on this promise and maintaining operational excellence, we strengthen our position as a trusted global partner for insights, services, and transaction solutions.
We see significant opportunities to increase transaction volumes and expand market share by creating a seamless and trusted experience for our sellers and buyers. Our strategy focuses on three key priorities:
i.Deliver Premium Price Performance for assets transacted across our omnichannel marketplaces while effectively accommodating our partners' liquidity preferences. The key is to manage supply and create deep liquidity pools by expanding our global buyer base through harnessing technology to merchandise assets at scale and provide a diverse and thoughtfully selected range of assets to meet each buyer's unique needs.
ii.Grow our enterprise partner base, which includes insurance companies in our automotive sector and large fleet owners in our CC&T sector. Our partners increasingly rely on our expertise to enhance their profitability by optimizing the lifecycle of the assets they transact through us. The more effectively we can communicate and demonstrate our value upstream from the transaction, the stronger our position will be to earn more transactions from partners and gain market share.
iii.Focus on driving growth with our regional CC&T customers, comprised of small and mid-size businesses that highly value the personalized engagement and relationship with our sales territory managers. By leveraging the expertise of our sales team as trusted advisors, we are confident in our ability to strengthen these existing relationships and build new ones. As we optimize and expand our sales coverage, we are well-positioned to capture additional market share and deliver sustained growth.
To execute this strategy, we are modernizing our technology capabilities, investing in talent development, and pursuing strategic acquisitions to broaden our capabilities and extend our market reach.
Service Offerings
We provide a global marketplace for our partners and customers to buy and sell a variety of asset classes by leveraging our proprietary transaction solutions, services and market insights. The table below outlines the various branded solutions we offer to help our partners and customers more efficiently manage their asset lifecycles and improve their return on investments.
| | | | | | | | |
| Solution | Brand | Description |
| Transaction Solutions | RB Auction | Onsite and online marketplace for selling and buying used equipment |
| J.M. Wood |
| IronPlanet | Online marketplace for selling and buying used equipment |
| GovPlanet | Online marketplace for the sale of government and military assets |
| Marketplace-E | Online marketplace with a fixed price format |
| Boom & Bucket |
| SalvageSale | Full-service project management and salvage inventory support |
| Ritchie Bros. Private Treaty | Confidential, negotiated sale of large equipment |
| IAA AuctionNow™ | Global online auction bidding and buying solution that features inventory located at physical branches and offsite locations. |
| IAA Buy Now™ | Online buy now format available between scheduled auctions. |
| IAA Custom Bid™ | Bidding tool that provides buyers focused on recycling the ability to set pre-bids in an auction based on vehicle attributes |
| IAA Timed Auctions™ | Timed auction format that allows for competitive bidding and sale prior to a scheduled auction |
| CSAToday® | Online portal that gives sellers the ability to manage their vehicle assets and monitor sales performance |
| Financial Services | Ritchie Bros. Financial Services | Loan origination service that uses a brokerage model to match loan applicants with appropriate financial lending institutions |
| Appraisal Services | Rouse Appraisals | Unbiased, certified appraisal services |
| Inspection Services | Ritchie Bros. Inspections | Truck and heavy equipment inspections |
| IAA Inspection Services® | Remote inspections and appraisals for salvage vehicles |
| Listings Services | Mascus | Online equipment listing service, B2B dealer portal, and an online fixed price marketplace platform |
| | | | | | | | |
| Solution | Brand | Description |
| Refurbishing Services | Ritchie Bros. Refurbishing | Repair, paint, and other make-ready services |
| Transportation Services | Ritchie Bros. Logistics
| End-to-end transportation and customs clearance solution for sellers and buyers with shipping needs |
| VeriTread Transport | Online transportation marketplace, connecting shippers and carriers |
| IAA Transport™ | Integrated shipping solution allowing buyers to schedule shipment of vehicles during the checkout process |
| IAA Tow App™ | Mobile dispatch solution that assists the tow network |
| Data Services | Rouse™ | The leading provider of construction equipment market intelligence |
| IAA Vehicle Score™ | A cutting-edge computer vision tool that assesses vehicle damage severity. Our automated Vehicle Score model provides fast and accurate ratings based on photos taken at vehicle check-in, saving time and money |
| IAA Vehicle Value™ | A predictive model that uses machine learning and data mining methods to create an accurate, unbiased vehicle value |
| Parts Services | SmartEquip | Online marketplace connecting equipment owners with parts manufacturers |
| Catastrophe Response Services | Catastrophe (CAT) Services™ | Industry-leading strategic catastrophe response service focused on real estate capacity, operational execution, transportation logistics and vehicle merchandising and selling |
| Title Services | IAA Title Services® | Full suite of title services that facilitate the title documentation, settlement and retrieval process |
| IAA Loan Payoff™ | Service that mitigates the time-consuming process of managing a total loss claim requiring loan payoff and title release |
Contract options
We offer consignors several contract options to meet their individual needs and sale objectives for selling assets, which include:
•Straight commission contracts, where the consignor receives the gross proceeds from the sale less a pre-negotiated commission rate;
•Fixed fee commission contracts, where the consignor receives the gross proceeds from the sale less a fixed flat fee; and
•Guarantee contracts, where the consignor receives a guaranteed minimum amount plus an additional amount if proceeds exceed a specified level.
Other value-added services
We provide a wide array of value-added services to make the process of selling and buying equipment and vehicles convenient for our customers:
•Title search services, where registries are commercially available, to help ensure equipment sold through RB Global is free and clear of all liens and encumbrances (if we are not able to deliver clear title, we provide a full refund up to the purchase price to the buyer);
•Making equipment available for inspection, testing, and comparison by prospective buyers;
•Displaying high-quality, zoomable photographs of equipment on our website;
•Providing 360-degree video inspection technology to increase buyer confidence in equipment being purchased;
•Providing industry-leading professional equipment inspections and reports;
•Providing free detailed equipment information on our website for most equipment;
•Providing access to commercial transportation companies and customs brokerages through our logistical services; and
•Handling all pre-auction marketing, as well as collection and disbursement of proceeds.
Intellectual Property
We believe our intellectual property has significant value and is an important factor in marketing our organization, services, and website, as well as differentiating us from our competitors. We own or hold the rights to use valuable intellectual property such as trademarks, service marks, domain names and tradenames. We protect our intellectual property in Canada, the U.S., and internationally through federal, provincial, state, and common law rights, including registration of certain trademark and service marks for many of our brands, including our core brands. We also have secured patents for inventions and have registered our domain names.
We rely on contractual restrictions and rights to protect certain of our proprietary rights in products and services. Effective protection of our intellectual property can be expensive to maintain and may require litigation. We must protect our intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights in many jurisdictions throughout the world. In addition, we may, from time to time, be subject to intellectual property claims, including allegations of infringement, which can be costly to defend. For a discussion of the risks involved with intellectual property litigation and enforcement of our intellectual property rights, see the related information in Part I, Item 1A: Risk Factors of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Sustainability
In 2025, we continued to advance our sustainability framework, which guides our actions and drives our sustainability progress. We continue to work closely with our sustainability program stakeholders to ensure that our priorities remain aligned with our partners and our shared values. Please see our website for our latest sustainability reports and further details on our initiatives and accomplishments.
The Company is regulated by federal, state, local, and international environmental laws governing the protection of the environment, health and safety, the use, transport and disposal of hazardous substances and control of emissions including greenhouse gases into the environment. Compliance with existing laws has not had a material impact on our capital expenditures, earnings or global competitive position. However, climate- and weather-related initiatives and changing laws and regulations governing the environment may affect the supply of, the demand for, and the market values of equipment in the future.
Our business enables a circular economy of vehicles and equipment. We engage our customers to optimize the use and efficiency of equipment, and to reuse, refurbish, and recycle before disposition, as extending the life of heavy equipment and vehicles is core to our business model.
In 2025, we continued to evaluate our environmental impact. To support our reporting and take further meaningful action, we dedicated resources to build on our emissions inventory and partner with internal stakeholders throughout our business to formalize our methodology, obtain more primary data, integrate business systems, enhance estimations, review emissions sources, and implement new processes and tools to support data collection, review, monitoring and reporting. We also completed the implementation of a software solution to streamline and support our future reporting needs. As a result of our efforts, we have made significant improvements to our methodology, refining our calculation approaches to incorporate the use of primary data.
We continue our commitment to environmental management by ensuring availability of treatment systems to manage wastewater, implementing an electronics recycling program to enhance waste management to decrease landfill impact, and continuing to utilize air filtration systems when necessary.
Human Capital
We employ approximately 8,000 full-time employees and approximately 700 part-time employees worldwide at December 31, 2025. Approximately 5,300 of our full-time employees work at our auction and branch sites to support our operations and solution services and approximately 1,400 full-time employees are focused on sales and solutions for our customers. We also periodically hire contractors as needed to support our auctions, various businesses, and other projects.
Development and Engagement
We believe that our people are our greatest asset, and are vested in employee learning and development. We have curated tools and resources and developed training programs to provide our leaders and employees with the skills to grow successfully. We continuously look for ways to create on-the-job learning opportunities so that our employees feel invested and engaged. Employees are involved in strategic initiatives and in finding ways to better serve our customers, and each other.
In 2025, we launched the following development initiatives:
•We introduced a new year-end performance review process to better measure employee performance and foster meaningful development discussions
•We made strong investments in leadership development, such as the introduction of the Leadership Foundations Program for new managers, helping develop skills to inspire, delegate, and communicate effectively. We also launched a leadership development curriculum with monthly courses focused on self-awareness, trust-building, leading through change, and effective coaching, in addition to a new online learning program with resources targeted to continuously strengthen leadership capabilities.
•We improved salvage sale operations through targeted training and new tools that streamlined workflows, and equipped our field teams with the latest knowledge and resources needed to work confidently and effectively.
•We expanded Title University, a training program for our titling operations, by enhancing virtual training and improving performance tracking.
Health & Safety
Safety is a top priority at RB Global and core to who we are. Our objective is to keep our people healthy and safe – to send everyone home, every day, the way they came to work. Our global Environmental, Health, Safety and Security (“EHSS”) team is focused on creating a unified approach to policies, procedures and best practices with the goal of keeping our teammates and customers safe and maintaining the highest level of environmental, health and safety standards.
All new employees are required to complete safety onboarding training that captures our health and safety programs, our policy statement and provides an overview of our global EHSS policies and expectations. Our 2025 completion rate for the safety onboarding program was 97% (2024: 97%). We also have a risk management process to support our safety orientation programs and our health and safety commitment, which ensures that our employees are exposed to the lowest possible level of risk. Our risk management process is continuous and includes both a review of all incidents as they occur and an annual review of incidents from the prior year to identify trends and assess whether changes in our policies and procedures are required.
In 2025, all auction sites completed monthly hazard assessments to identify risks and take the necessary corrective actions. In addition, we also require all of our global employees in operations to complete a mandatory annual safety training curriculum.
We measure our Total Recordable Injury Rate (“TRIR”), which is the number of reportable incidences per 100 full-time workers during the year. Our annual TRIR goal is to be lower than the industrial average. TRIR for 2025 was 1.59 (2024: 1.78), which was below the industrial average.
Ethical Conduct
We are committed to a culture of excellence. We aim to build a community with strong values of responsibility and integrity, continue to invest in training and development, and to create an open environment where honest communications are the expectation – not the exception. Our Code of Conduct contains guidelines for conducting business with the highest standards of ethical behavior, which is delivered through annual training to our employees. We also offer the RB Global Ethics Hotline, which is operated by an independent third-party and is always available from any location around the world, as a resource through which anonymous concerns can be raised.
Governance
We believe in doing the right thing for everyone involved in our business and seek to do business with third parties who follow the same core values. This is reflected in our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. With the exception of our CEO, our Board of Directors consists of elected independent members.
The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee oversees the Company's strategic approach to sustainability and, together with the Audit Committee, related public disclosures. The Committee also oversees the nomination and compensation of directors. The Audit Committee oversees our risk management processes, financial reporting, and matters related to legal and regulatory compliance, while our global Executive Leadership Team provides strategic direction and oversight of sustainability across key business functions.
The Role of Technology
Building a modern architecture on which we can scale and grow profitably is a core element of our growth strategy. The role of technology in our business continues to evolve and becomes increasingly important, as our sellers and buyers adopt mobile and online channels to complete their transactions and fulfill their business needs. We continue to invest in technologies to transition to a modern cloud-based architecture, driven by microservices that allow for agility, flexibility and scalability of our solutions.
We remain focused on technology enablement to transform the way we leverage technology to drive future profitable growth. We are in the deployment phase of providing our customers with a modern unified payment system to process transaction solutions. We are also investing in the development of a new platform to unite our various auction platforms to provide greater stability and simplify our processes for buyers and sellers. Our new platform is designed to provide an updated modern design, improved search functions and navigation capabilities to make it easier for our customers to bid at our auctions and process their transactions. During 2025, we implemented a new digital payments platform and digital checkout system at Ritchie Bros. auction events in the United States and we plan to continue enhancing and deploying the platform to additional regions globally in 2026 and 2027. We will continue to evaluate, invest and evolve our products and capabilities based on the ongoing needs of our customers and partners.
Our technology capabilities also deliver choices for our customers in the form of multiple channels for buyers and sellers, meeting customers’ asset management needs through information-rich software solutions and leveraging our rich data repository to drive strong sales and improved pricing decisions. We provide our customers with leading tools and capabilities to deliver full life-cycle asset management for used equipment and vehicles.
Revenue Mix
Our revenues are comprised of:
•Service revenue, including:
i.Transactional seller revenues, which includes commissions and other fees earned from consignors to facilitate the sale of an asset such as inbound tow, liens search, title processing, online listing and inspection fees;
ii.Transactional buyer revenues, which includes tiered buyer transaction and other fees earned from buyers to complete the purchase of an asset, such as title processing, late pick-up, platform registration and other administrative fees; and
iii.Marketplace services revenues, which includes fees earned from various optional services provided to buyers, sellers, or other third parties, such as transportation, buyer towing, refurbishment, financing, parts procurement, data and appraisal, and other ancillary services.
•Inventory sales revenue, which consists of revenue relating to assets that are purchased by the Company and then resold.
Our revenue can fluctuate significantly based on the mix of sales arrangements, which is driven by customer preferences. Completed straight commission, fixed commission or guarantee commission contracts result in the commission being recognized as service revenue based on a percentage of gross transaction value or based on a fixed value, while completed inventory contracts result in the full GTV of the assets sold being recorded as inventory sales revenue. As a result, a change in the revenue mix between service revenue and revenue from inventory sales can have a significant impact on our revenue growth percentages.
Governmental Regulations and Environmental Laws
Our operations are subject to a variety of federal, provincial, state and local laws, rules, and regulations throughout the world. Compliance with these regulations and laws requires human level awareness, performance and expertise, and investments in our enterprise management systems to facilitate efficient workflow, data tracking and auditing capabilities to measure compliance. We believe that we are compliant in all material respects with those laws, rules, and regulations that affect our business, and that such compliance does not impose a material impediment on our ability to conduct our business.
We believe that, among other things, laws, rules, and regulations related to the following list of items affect our business:
•Imports and exports of commercial assets. Particularly, there are restrictions in the U.S. and Europe that may affect the ability of equipment owners to transport certain equipment between specified jurisdictions. Also, engine emission standards in some jurisdictions limit the operation of certain trucks and equipment in those regions.
•Development or expansion of auction sites. Such activities depend upon the receipt of required licenses, permits, and other governmental authorizations. We are also subject to various local zoning requirements pertaining to the location of our auction sites, which vary among jurisdictions.
•The use, storage, discharge, and disposal of environmentally sensitive materials. Under such laws, an owner or lessee of, or other person involved in, real estate may be liable for the costs of removal or remediation of certain hazardous or toxic substances located on or in, or emanating from, such property, as well as related costs of investigation and property damage. These laws often impose liability without regard to whether the owner or lessee or other person knew of, or was responsible for, the presence of such hazardous or toxic substances.
•Worker health and safety, privacy of customer information, and the use, storage, discharge, and disposal of environmentally sensitive materials.
•The acquisition and sale of totaled and recovered theft vehicles are regulated by state or other local motor vehicle departments in each of the locations in which we operate.
•Some of the transport vehicles used at our marketplaces are regulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation or similar regulatory agencies in the other countries in which we operate.
•In many states and provinces, regulations require that a damaged and total loss vehicle be forever “branded” with a salvage notice in order to notify prospective purchasers of the vehicle’s previous salvage status.
•Some state, provincial and local regulations limit who can purchase damaged and total loss vehicles, as well as determine whether a damaged and total loss vehicle can be sold as rebuildable or must be sold for parts or scrap only.
•We are subject to various local zoning requirements with regard to the location of our auction and storage facilities, which requirements vary from location to location.
•We are indirectly subject to the regulations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 due to our vendor relationships with financial institutions.
Available Information
We file with the SEC reports on Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, Form 8-K, proxy materials and other filings required under the Exchange Act. Investors may access any materials we file with the SEC through the EDGAR database on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.
In addition, investors and others should note that we announce material financial information using our company website (https://rbglobal.com) and investor relations website (https://investor.rbglobal.com), which host our SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls, and webcasts. Information about RB Global, Inc., its business, and its results of operations may also be announced by posts on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/rb-global-inc).
The information that we post on our LinkedIn page could be deemed to be material information. As a result, we encourage investors, the media, and others interested in RB Global, Inc. to review the information that we post on our LinkedIn page.
We are providing these website addresses solely for the information of investors, and the information on or accessible through our websites and social media channels is not incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Also available for investors in the Governance section of our investor relations website are the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics for our directors, officers and employees (“Code of Conduct”), Board Mandate, Audit Committee Charter, Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Charter, Compensation Committee Charter, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Shareholder Engagement Policy, Articles and By-laws, and Board Chair Role and Description. Additional information related to RB Global, Inc. is also available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
As a Business Corporations Act (Ontario) (“OBCA”) company with our principal place of business in Canada, U.S. civil liabilities may not be enforceable against us. Please see Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors — U.S. civil liabilities may not be enforceable against us, our directors, or our officers.
ITEM 1A: RISK FACTORS
An investment in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. In addition to the other information included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, you should carefully consider each of the risks described below before purchasing our common shares. The risk factors set forth below are not the only risks that may affect our business. Our business could also be affected by additional risks not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, financial condition and results of operations could materially suffer. As a result, the trading price of our common shares could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. Information in this section may be considered “forward-looking statements.” See “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” for a discussion of certain qualifications regarding such statements.
Risks Related to Our Business
Our business and operating results would be adversely affected due to the loss of one or more significant suppliers, a reduction in significant volume from suppliers, an adverse change in our supplier relationships, or a disruption to our supply of damaged, total loss and low-value vehicles.
Our business depends on suppliers of damaged, total loss and low-value vehicles. Our vehicle suppliers include insurance companies, used-vehicle dealers, rental car and fleet lease companies, auto lenders and charitable organizations, among others. We have established long-term relationships with virtually all of the major automobile insurance companies. During fiscal year 2025, approximately 23% of our consolidated revenues were associated with vehicles supplied by the Company's three largest supplier customers. Our agreements with insurance company suppliers are generally subject to cancellation by either party upon 30 to 90 days’ notice. There can be no assurance that our existing agreements will not be canceled or that we will be able to enter into future agreements on favorable terms with these suppliers. We work to develop strong relationships with our suppliers to better understand their needs. From time to time, however, we may experience the loss of suppliers or a reduction in volume from suppliers, including top vehicle suppliers. If we lose one or more of our significant suppliers, or if one or more of our large suppliers were to significantly reduce volume for any reason or favor competitors or new entrants, we may not be successful in replacing such business and our profitability and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
Generally, institutional and dealer suppliers make non-binding long-term commitments with us regarding consignment volumes. Changes in the consignment patterns of our key suppliers could have a material adverse effect on our business and operations. There are many factors that can adversely affect volume from suppliers, many of which are beyond our control. These factors include, but are not limited to, the following:
•A decrease in the number of vehicles in operation or miles driven;
•Mild weather conditions that cause fewer traffic accidents;
•Reduction of policy writing by insurance providers that would affect the number of claims over a period of time;
•Increases in fuel prices that could lead to a reduction in the miles driven per vehicle, which may reduce the accident rate;
•Changes in vehicle technology, an increase in autonomous vehicles and vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS);
•A decrease in the percentage of claims resulting in a total loss or elimination of automotive collision coverage by consumers;
•Delays or changes in state title processing;
•Government regulations on the standards for producing vehicles; and
•Changes in direct repair procedures that would reduce the number of newer, less damaged total loss vehicles, which tend to have higher salvage values.
Furthermore, in periods when the supply of vehicles from the insurance sector declines, salvage operators have acquired and, in the future, may acquire vehicles on their own. Also, when used vehicle prices are high, used-vehicle dealers may retail more of their trade-in vehicles on their own rather than selling them at auction. If the supply or value of damaged, total loss and low-value vehicles coming to auction declines significantly, our revenues and profitability may be adversely affected.
Our business and operating results would be adversely affected if we are unable to meet or exceed our buyer customers’ demand and expectations or due to a disruption in demand of damaged, total loss and low-value vehicles.
We believe our future success depends in part on our ability to respond to changes in buyer requirements, our ability to meet service level expectations of both buyers and sellers and our ability to meet regulatory requirements for such customers. IAA’s buyer customers include automotive body shops, rebuilders, used car dealers, automotive wholesalers, exporters, dismantlers, recyclers, brokers, and the general public, among others. We work to develop strong relationships and interactive dialogue with our customers to better understand current trends and customer needs. If we are not successful in meeting our customers’ expectations, our customer relationships could be negatively affected and result in a loss of future business, which would adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.
Our market position and competitive advantage could be threatened by our competitors and/or disruptive new entrants.
We face significant competition for the supply of damaged and total loss vehicles and the buyers of those vehicles. IAA’s principal sources of competition historically have come from (1) direct competitors, (2) new entrants, including new vehicle remarketing venues, and (3) existing alternative vehicle remarketing venues, including used-vehicle auctions and certain salvage buyer groups. Due to the increasing use of the Internet and other technology as marketing and distribution channels, we may face increasing competition from online wholesale and retail marketplaces (generally without any meaningful physical presence) and from our own customers, including insurance companies, when they sell directly to end users through such platforms rather than remarket vehicles through our marketplaces. Increased competition could result in price reductions, reduced margins or loss of market share.
Our future success also depends on our ability to respond to evolving industry trends, changes in customer requirements and new technologies. Some of IAA’s competitors may have greater financial and marketing resources than we do, may be able to respond more quickly to evolving industry dynamics and changes in customer requirements, or may be able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of new or emerging services and technologies. Our ability to successfully grow through investments in the area of emerging opportunities depends on many factors, including advancements in technology, regulatory changes and other factors that are difficult to predict, or that may significantly affect the future of electrification, autonomy, and mobility. If we are unable to compete successfully or to successfully adapt to industry changes, our business, revenues and profitability could be materially adversely affected.
If our facilities lack the capacity to accept additional vehicles, then our relationships with insurance companies or other vehicle suppliers could be adversely affected.
Capacity at our facilities varies from period to period and by region as a result of various factors, including natural disasters. We may not be able to reach agreements to purchase or lease storage facilities in markets where we have limited available capacity, and zoning restrictions or difficulties obtaining use permits may limit our ability to expand our capacity through acquisitions of new land. If we fail to have sufficient capacity at one or more of our facilities, our relationships with insurance companies or other vehicle suppliers could be adversely affected, which could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.
We may be unable to keep existing facilities or open new facilities in desirable locations and on favorable terms, which could materially and adversely affect our results of operations.
Local land use and zoning regulations, environmental regulations and other regulatory requirements may impact our ability to find suitable locations and influence the cost of our operations. Most of IAA’s salvage auction vehicle facilities are leased. The termination or expiration of leases at existing facilities may adversely affect us if the renewal terms of those leases are unacceptable to us and we are forced to close the facilities. If we determine to close a location, we may remain obligated under the applicable lease for the remaining lease term and may have to expense the unamortized portion of the right-of-use assets, in part or in full, as an impairment which may have a material impact on our consolidated results of operations and financial position. Also, if we are unable to maintain our existing facilities or open new facilities in desirable locations and on favorable terms, our results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. Further, in an increasing number of markets where we experience significant capacity constraints together with pressing customer demand and a lack of viable alternatives for expansion due to zoning and land use restrictions, we may be required to purchase, lease or occupy industrial sites, which may contain significant environmental impacts.
In addition, some of the facilities on which we operate are impacted by significant recognized environmental concerns and pollution conditions. IAA has incurred, and we may in the future incur, expenditures relating to compliance and risk mitigation efforts, releases of hazardous materials, investigative, remedial or corrective actions, claims by third parties and other environmental issues, and such expenditures, individually or in the aggregate, could be significant. Federal and state environmental authorities have investigated IAA’s role in contributing to contamination at the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund Site in Seattle, Washington and the role of one of IAA’s subsidiaries in contributing to the Pyrite Canyon Plume in Jurupa Valley, California. Our potential liability at these sites cannot be estimated at this time.
Macroeconomic factors, including high fuel prices, high labor costs, inflation, tariffs and changes in used car prices, may have an adverse effect on our revenues and operating results.
Macroeconomic factors that affect oil prices and the vehicle and commodity markets can have adverse effects on our revenue and operating results. Significant increases in the cost of fuel, whether due to inflationary pressures, including as a result of tariffs, or otherwise, could lead to a reduction in miles driven per car and a reduction in accident rates. A material reduction in accident rates, whether due to a reduction in miles driven or other factors, could reduce our vehicle assignment volumes, which in turn, could have a material adverse impact on our revenues. In addition, significant increases in the cost of fuel have resulted and could continue to result in an increase in the prices charged to us by our independent subhaulers and trucking fleet operators. Further, we have recently experienced labor shortages, which have resulted in an increase in associated costs, such as increased overtime to meet demand and increased wages to attract and retain employees. If these conditions or other inflationary pressures, including as a result of tariffs, continue, our costs for towing and branch labor may continue to rise. To the extent we are unable to pass these costs on to our customers, the increase in prices charged by our independent subhaulers and trucking fleet operators and the increase in labor costs could negatively impact our profitability.
Volatility in salvage car prices could have a material adverse effect on our revenues in future periods.
Adverse economic conditions, including increases in interest rates and lease rates, real estate values and real estate development and construction costs, may increase the costs required to invest in capacity expansion or delay our ability to open new facilities, both of which could have a material impact on our consolidated results of operations and financial position.
Reliance on our subhaulers and trucking fleet operations could materially and adversely affect our business and reputation.
We rely on independent subhaulers and trucking fleet operations to pick up and deliver vehicles to and from our auction facilities. Consistent with the economy generally, we have recently experienced a shortage of towers and haulers, which has resulted in an increase in costs charged to us by towers and subhaulers for these services, and we cannot provide assurances that towers and subhaulers will be available in a timely manner to pick up and deliver vehicles. Failure to pick up and deliver vehicles in a timely manner could harm our brand and reputation, and adversely impact our overall business and results of operations. Further, an increase in fuel cost may lead to increased prices charged by our independent subhaulers and trucking fleet operators, which may significantly increase our cost. We may not be able to pass these costs on to our suppliers or buyers. We are also exposed to risks associated with inclement weather, disruptions in the transportation infrastructure and increase in the price of fuel, any of which could increase our operating costs. If we experience problems or are unable to negotiate or obtain favorable terms with our subhaulers, our results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
Weather-related and other events beyond our control may adversely impact operations.
Extreme weather or other events, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, forest fires, floods, global pandemics or other health crises, terrorist attacks or war, may adversely affect the overall economic environment, the markets in which we compete, and our operations and profitability. These events, which may increase in frequency and magnitude as a result of climate- and weather-related changes, may impact our physical auction facilities, causing a material increase in costs, or delays or cancellation of auction sales, which could have a material adverse impact on our revenues and profitability. In some instances, for example with the severe storm in September 2022 known as “Hurricane Ian”, these events may result in a sharp influx in the available supply of damaged and total loss vehicles and there can be no assurance that our business will have sufficient resources to handle such extreme increases in supply. Our failure to meet our customers’ demands in such situations could negatively affect our relationships with such customers and result in a loss of future business, which would adversely affect our operating results and financial condition. In addition, revenues generated as a result of the total loss of vehicles associated with such a catastrophe are typically recognized subsequent to the incurrence of incremental costs and such revenues may not be sufficient to offset the costs incurred.
Mild weather conditions tend to result in a decrease in the available supply of damaged and total loss vehicles because traffic accidents decrease, and fewer vehicles are damaged. Accordingly, mild weather can have an adverse effect on our damaged and total loss vehicle inventories, which would be expected to have an adverse effect on our revenue and operating results and related growth rates.
An increase in the number of damaged and total loss vehicles we purchase could adversely affect our profitability.
In certain countries, the salvage market typically operates on a principal basis, in which a vehicle is purchased and then resold, rather than on an agent basis, in which the auction acts as a sales agent for the owner of the vehicle. Operating on a principal basis exposes us to inventory risks, including losses from theft, damage and obsolescence. If we purchase vehicles, the increased costs associated with acquiring the vehicles could have a material adverse effect on our gross profit margin and operating results. Vehicles sold under purchase agreements were approximately 2.7% of IAA’s vehicles sold both domestically and internationally for fiscal year 2025. In addition, when vehicles are purchased, we are subject to changes in vehicle values, such as those caused by changes in commodity prices or changes in used car prices. Decreases in commodity prices, such as steel and platinum, may negatively affect vehicle values and demand at auctions. In addition, declines in used car prices, especially if they occur faster than anticipated, can lead to a significant gap between pre-accident value and sales price.
A significant change in used-vehicle prices could impact the proceeds and revenue from the sale of damaged and total loss vehicles.
The volume of new vehicle production, accuracy of lease residual estimates, interest rate fluctuations, customer demand and changes in regulations, among other things, all potentially affect the pricing of used vehicles. A sustained reduction in used-vehicle pricing could result in lower proceeds from the sale of damaged and total loss vehicles and a related reduction in revenue per vehicle, a potential loss of consignors and decreased profitability. Conversely, when used vehicle prices are high, used-vehicle dealers may retail more of their trade-in vehicles on their own rather than selling them at auction, which could adversely affect our revenues and profitability.
IAA assumes the settlement risk for vehicles sold through its marketplaces.
Typically, following the sale of a vehicle, IAA does not release the vehicle to a buyer until such time as it has received full payment for the vehicle. We may be obligated, however, to remit payment to a seller before receiving payment from a buyer and in those circumstances, we may not have recourse against sellers for any buyer’s failure to satisfy its payment obligations. Because we retain possession of the vehicle, we can resell the vehicle to mitigate any potential losses. Since revenue for most vehicles does not include the gross sales proceeds, failure to collect the receivables in full may result in a net loss up to the amount of gross sales proceeds on a per vehicle basis in addition to any expenses incurred to collect the receivables and to provide the services associated with the vehicle. If we are unable to collect payments on a large number of vehicles and we are unable to resell them and recover our costs, the resulting payment obligations to the seller and decreased fee revenues may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.
Changes in laws affecting the import and export of damaged and total loss vehicles may have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
Changes in laws, regulations and treaties that restrict the importation of damaged and total loss vehicles into foreign countries may reduce the demand for damaged and total loss vehicles and impact our ability to maintain or increase IAA’s international buyer base. The adoption of such laws or regulations in other jurisdictions that have the effect of reducing or curtailing our activities abroad could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition by reducing the demand for our products and services.
We are subject to potential liabilities with respect to IAA’s prior separation from KAR Auction Services, Inc.
On February 27, 2018, KAR Auction Services, Inc. (“KAR”) announced a plan to pursue the separation and spin-off (the “Separation”) of IAA (its salvage auction services business) into a separate public company. On June 28, 2019, KAR completed the distribution of 100% of the issued and outstanding shares of common stock of IAA to the holders of record of KAR’s common stock on June 18, 2019, on a pro rata basis (the “Distribution”). Under the terms of the Separation and Distribution, each of IAA and KAR is required to indemnify the other party from and with respect to certain liabilities. IAA’s and KAR’s ability to satisfy these indemnities, if called upon to do so, will depend respectively upon our and KAR’s future financial strength. If we are required to indemnify KAR, or if we are not able to collect on indemnification rights from KAR, our financial condition, liquidity or results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
We may not realize the anticipated benefits of, and synergies from, acquisitions and may become responsible for certain liabilities and integration costs as a result.
We have acquired, and may continue to acquire, businesses that have previously operated independently from us. The integration of our operations with those of acquired businesses, including J.M. Wood, is intended to result in financial and operational benefits, including certain tax and run-rate synergies. There can be no assurance, however, regarding when or the extent to which we will be able to realize these and other benefits. Integration may also be difficult, unpredictable and subject to delay because of possible company culture conflicts and different opinions on future business development. We may be required to integrate or, in some cases, replace, numerous systems, including those involving management information, purchasing, accounting and finance, sales, billing, employee benefits, payroll and regulatory compliance, many of which may be dissimilar. Difficulties associated with the integration of acquired businesses could have a material adverse effect on our business.
In addition, in connection with acquisitions, we have assumed, and may assume in connection with future acquisitions, certain potential liabilities. To the extent such liabilities are not identified by us or to the extent indemnifications obtained from third parties are insufficient to cover such liabilities, these liabilities could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Damage to our reputation could harm our business.
One of our founding principles is that we operate a fair and transparent business, and consistently act with integrity. Maintaining a positive reputation is key to our ability to attract and maintain customers, investors and employees. Damage to our reputation could cause significant harm to our business. Harm to our reputation could arise in a number of ways, including, but not limited to, employee conduct which is not aligned with our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (and associated Company policies around behavioral expectations) or our Company’s core values, safety incidents, failure to maintain customer service standards, loss of trust in the fairness of our sales processes, the types of assets that we choose or are obligated to sell, and other technology or compliance failures.
We may incur losses as a result of our guarantee and inventory contracts and advances to consignors.
Our most common type of auction contract is a straight commission contract, under which we earn a pre-negotiated, fixed commission rate on the gross sales price of the consigned equipment at auction. We use straight commission contracts when we act as agent for consignors. In recent years, a majority of our annual business has been conducted on a straight commission basis. In certain other situations, we will enter into underwritten transactions and either offer to (a) guarantee a minimum level of sale proceeds to the consignor, regardless of the ultimate selling price of the consignment; or (b) purchase the equipment outright from the seller for sale through one of our sales channels.
We determine the level of guaranteed proceeds or inventory purchase price based on appraisals performed on equipment by our internal personnel. Inaccurate appraisals could result in guarantees or inventory values that exceed the realizable auction proceeds. In addition, a change in market values could also result in guarantee or inventory values exceeding the realizable auction proceeds. If auction proceeds are less than the guaranteed amount, our commission will be reduced, and we could potentially incur a loss, and, if auction proceeds are less than the purchase price, we paid for equipment that we take into inventory temporarily, we will incur a loss. Because a majority of our auctions are unreserved, there is no way for us to protect against these types of losses by bidding on or acquiring any of the items at such auctions. In addition, we do not hold inventory indefinitely waiting for market conditions to improve. If our exposure to underwritten contracts increases, this risk would be compounded.
Occasionally, we advance to consignors a portion of the estimated auction proceeds prior to the auction. We generally make these advances only after taking possession of the assets to be auctioned and upon receipt of a security interest in the assets to secure the obligation. If we were unable to auction the assets or if auction proceeds were less than amounts advanced, we could incur a loss. Additionally, we have two vendor contracts with the U.S. Government’s Defense Logistics Agency (“DLA”) pursuant to which we acquire, manage and resell certain assets of the DLA. Each of the DLA contracts obliges the Company to purchase rolling and non-rolling stock assets in an amount and of a type over which we have limited ability to control. In many cases, the type of assets purchased are not what we typically sell through any of our other channels. Although the prices we pay for the non-rolling stock inventory are a fraction of the original acquisition value, we may not have the ability to attract buyers for those assets and we may be unable to sell those assets on a timely basis or at all. This would have an adverse effect on our financial results.
The availability and performance of our IT systems and infrastructure is critical to our business and continued growth.
The satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our websites, online bidding service, auction management systems, enterprise resource planning systems, transaction processing systems, network infrastructure and customer relationship management systems are important to our reputation, our business and our continued growth. We currently rely on our own proprietary systems, licensed on-premise systems, and third-party cloud computing applications and infrastructure located in the United States and other countries. The systems and infrastructure we rely on may experience service interruptions or degradation because of hardware or software defects or malfunctions, denial of service or ransomware attacks and other cybersecurity events, human error and natural events beyond our control. The rapid evolution and increased adoption of artificial intelligence technologies may intensify our cybersecurity risks. Additionally, as part of our management of these IT resources, we integrate, make updates to or initiate other types of changes to our systems and infrastructure to address ongoing availability and performance concerns or to improve the same, and the risk of disruption is increased when such changes are undertaken. Some of our systems are not fully redundant, and our recovery planning may not be sufficient for all possible disruptions. Further, the access to and use of needed hardware and software, including cloud computing resources, may not continue to be available at reasonable prices, on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Any loss of the right to access or use any of these components and resources, the degraded performance, or loss of the functionality, of our systems, or a failure to timely or successfully integrate and update our systems or infrastructure, could mean a failure to realize cost savings or operational benefits anticipated to be derived from an IT initiative, significantly increase our expenses, damage our reputation and otherwise result in delays in providing our services. Our business and results of operations would be particularly harmed if, for any reason, access to our online bidding service was lost or its functionality degraded.
Consumer behavior is rapidly changing, and if we are unable to successfully adapt to consumer preferences and develop and maintain a relevant and reliable inventory management and multichannel disposition experience for our customers, our financial performance and brand image could be adversely affected.
Our business continues to evolve into a one-stop inventory management and multichannel disposition company where customers can buy, sell, or list equipment, when, how, and where they choose- both onsite and online, and manage their existing fleets and/or inventory using our online inventory management tools. As a result of this evolution, increasingly we interact with our customers across a variety of different channels, including live auction, online, through mobile technologies, including the mobile apps, social media, and inventory management systems. Our customers are increasingly using tablets and mobile phones to make purchases online and to get detailed equipment information for assets that they own or are interested in purchasing. Our customers also engage with us online, including through social media, by providing feedback and public commentary about all aspects of our business. Shopping patterns are rapidly changing, and our success depends on our ability to anticipate and implement innovations in customer experience and logistics in order to appeal to customers who increasingly rely on multiple channels to meet their equipment management and disposition needs. Our ability to provide a high quality and efficient customer experience is also dependent on external factors over which we may have little or no control, including, without limitation, the reliability and performance of the equipment sold in our marketplaces and the performance of third-party carriers who transport purchased equipment on behalf of buyers. If for any reason we are unable to implement our inventory management, data solutions, bidding tools and other multichannel initiatives, provide a convenient and consistent experience for our customers across all channels, or provide our customers the services they want, when and where they want them at a compelling value proposition, then our financial performance and brand image could be adversely affected.
We rely on data provided by third parties, the loss of which could limit the functionality of certain of our platforms and disrupt our business.
Our analytics teams rely on asset, pricing and other data, including personal data, provided to us by our customers and other third parties. Some of this data is provided to us pursuant to third-party data sharing policies and terms of use, under data sharing agreements by third-party providers or by customers with consent. Any of these parties could change their data sharing policies and terms of use, including by making them more restrictive, terminating or not renewing agreements, or, customers could revoke their consent, any of which could result in the loss of, or significant impairment to, our ability to collect and provide useful data or related services to our customers.
These third parties could also interpret our data collection and use policies or practices as being inconsistent with their policies or business objectives or lose confidence in our data protection and privacy practices, which could result in the loss of our ability to collect this data. Any such changes could impair our ability to deliver our analytics service to our customers in the manner currently anticipated or at all, impairing the return on investment that our customers derive from using our analytics platform and related products, as well as adversely affecting our business and our ability to generate revenue.
Government regulation of the digital landscape is evolving, and unfavorable regulations could substantially harm our business and results of operations.
We are subject to federal, provincial, state and local laws, rules and regulations governing digital commerce and online services. Existing and future laws and regulations may impede the growth of digital commerce or other services, in particular online marketplace services, and increase the cost of doing business, including providing online disposition services. These regulations and laws may cover taxation, tariffs, user privacy, data protection, machine learning and automated decision making, pricing, transaction processing, content, intellectual property rights, electronic contracts, digital marketing communications, consumer protection, and the characteristics and quality of our disposition services. It is not always clear how existing laws governing issues such as property transfers, digital, sales and similar taxes, intellectual property rights, and user privacy and data protection apply to digital commerce and online services. Changes to laws, rules and regulations and unfavorable resolution of these issues may harm our business and results of operations.
If our ability, or the ability of our third-party service partners, cloud computing providers or third-party data center hosting facilities, to safeguard the reliability, integrity and confidentiality of our and their IT systems is compromised, if unauthorized access is obtained to our systems or customers’, suppliers', counterparties' and employees' confidential information, or if authorized access is blocked or disabled, we may incur material reputational harm, legal exposure, or a negative financial impact.
We rely on IT resources to manage and operate our business, including maintaining proprietary databases containing sensitive and confidential information about our customers, suppliers, counterparties and employees (which may include personal information and credit information) and utilizing approved third-party technology providers to support the management and operation of IT systems and infrastructure. The malicious tools and techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to or impair IT systems and devices and the data processed thereby evolve frequently in terms of attack vectors and sophistication and we may not be able to anticipate these vectors or to timely implement adequate preventative and protective measures. Unauthorized parties have and may in the future attempt to gain access to our and our providers’ primary and backup systems or facilities through various means, including hacking into IT systems or facilities, fraud, trickery or other means of deceiving our and their employees or contractors. Ransomware attacks are increasingly prevalent and severe, and can lead to significant interruptions in our operations, loss of data and income, reputational loss, and diversion of funds. Further, breaches experienced by other companies may also be leveraged against us and sophisticated actors can mask their attacks, making them increasingly difficult to identify and prevent. There can be no assurance that impacts from these incidents will not be material or significant in the future.
In addition, our limited control over our customers may affect the security and integrity of our IT systems and create financial, reputational or legal exposure. For example, our customers may accidentally disclose their passwords, use insecure passwords, or store them on a device that is lost or stolen, providing bad actors with access to a customer’s account with us and the possible means to redirect customer payments. Further, users of our services could have vulnerabilities on their own devices that are entirely unrelated to our systems and platforms but could mistakenly attribute their own vulnerabilities to us. Under credit card payment rules and our contracts with credit card processors, if there is a breach of payment card information used to process transactions, we could be liable to the payment card issuing banks for certain fraudulent credit card transactions and other payment disputes with customers, including the cost of issuing new cards and related expenses. If we were liable for a significant number of fraudulent transactions or unable to accept payment cards, our results of operations would be materially and adversely affected. Bad actors may also create fake websites or misleading communications that mimic our branding, product offerings, or invoicing systems, thereby deceiving customers into making purchases that they believe are legitimate. Such fraudulent activities could significantly damage our reputation, erode customer trust, and result in financial losses. Furthermore, the complex, global and fragmented nature of the internet ecosystem, including multiple domain registrars, hosting services, and internet service providers, can make it extremely difficult and time-consuming to identify and take down fraudulent websites or other misleading content, leaving our brand vulnerable to continued exploitation by malicious actors. This risk is heightened in foreign jurisdictions where we may have less influence over local enforcement mechanisms, or access to rapid legal recourse.
The information security measures we implement, maintain and follow that are designed to mitigate our risks with respect to IT-related cybersecurity incidents do not guarantee that our operations will not be disrupted, that we will prevent an attack from occurring in the future, or that our internal controls, for instance relating to user access management, will perform as intended to prevent unauthorized access to our systems and data. We continue to integrate and align security measures and internal controls across our operating businesses. These businesses are at varying stages of maturity, which presents challenges in standardizing security measures across the organization. Inconsistent or incomplete alignment of security measures could lead to vulnerabilities, compliance risks, or operational disruptions. Gaps or delays in our ongoing efforts to align these measures could impact the effectiveness of our overall security posture and expose us to potential security breaches. Any breach of our IT systems may have a material adverse impact on our business, the assessment of the performance of our internal control environment, results of operations, reputation, stock price and our ability to access capital markets, and may also be deemed to contribute to a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting.
Security events, hacking or other malicious or surreptitious activity (or the perception that such activities have occurred), could damage our reputation, cause a loss of confidence in the security of our services and thereby a loss of customers, and expose us to a risk of loss, governmental investigations and enforcement actions or litigation and possible liability for damages. We may be required to make significant expenditures and divert management attention to monitor, detect and prevent security events, to remediate known or potential security vulnerabilities, or to alleviate problems caused by any security events. In addition, circumvention of our security measures may result in the loss or misappropriation of valuable business data, intellectual property or trade secret information, misappropriation of our customers’ or employees’ personal information, damage to our computing infrastructure, networks and stored data, service delays, key personnel being unable to perform duties or communicate throughout the organization, loss of sales, significant costs for data restoration and other adverse impacts on our business. Further, such a breach may require us to incur significant expenses to notify governmental agencies, individuals or other third parties pursuant to various privacy and security laws.
The costs of mitigating cybersecurity risks are significant and are likely to increase in the future. Our third-party service providers may be vulnerable to interruption or loss of valuable business data and information of our customers and employees (among others). Data stored by our third-party providers might be improperly accessed or unavailable due to a variety of events beyond our control, including, but not limited to, employee error or negligence, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, telecommunications failures, computer viruses, hackers and other security issues. Additionally, if any of our third-party technology providers violate applicable laws or our contracts or policies, such violations may also put our customers’ information at risk and could in turn have a material and adverse effect on our business. Our insurance policies may not be adequate to reimburse us for losses caused by security breaches, and we may not be able to fully collect, if at all, under these insurance policies.
Our future expenses may increase significantly and our operations and ability to expand may be limited as a result of licenses, laws and regulations governing auction sites, environmental protection, international trade, tariffs and other matters.
A variety of federal, provincial, state and local laws, rules and regulations throughout the world apply to our business, relating to, among other things, tax and accounting rules, the auction business, imports and exports of equipment, property ownership, licensing, data intelligence, worker safety, privacy and security of customer information, land use and the use, storage, discharge and disposal of environmentally sensitive materials. Complying with revisions to laws, rules and regulations could result in an increase in expenses and a deterioration of our financial performance. Monitoring of, and compliance with, applicable laws, rules and regulations may be difficult, time-consuming and costly. Failure to comply with applicable laws, rules and regulations could result in substantial liability to us, reputational harm, suspension or cessation of some or all of our operations, restrictions on our ability to expand at present locations or into new locations, requirements for the acquisition of additional equipment or other significant expenses or restrictions. Those laws, rules or regulations and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations.
The development or expansion of auction sites depends upon receipt of required licenses, permits and other governmental authorizations. Our inability to obtain these required items could harm our business. Additionally, changes or concessions required by regulatory authorities could result in significant delays in, or prevent completion of, such development or expansion. International bidders and consignors could be deterred from participating in our auctions if governmental bodies impose additional export or import regulations or additional duties, taxes or other charges on exports or imports. The United States and other countries have imposed and may continue to impose new trade restrictions and export regulations, have levied tariffs and taxes on certain assets, and could significantly increase tariffs on a broad array of assets. Trade restrictions and export regulations, or increases in tariffs and additional taxes, including any retaliatory measures, could reduce participation from international bidders and consignors which could reduce GTV and harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Under some environmental laws, an owner, operator or lessee of, or other person involved in, real estate may be liable for the costs of removal or remediation of hazardous or toxic substances located on or in, or emanating from, the real estate, and related costs of investigation and property damage. These laws often impose liability without regard to whether the owner, operator, lessee or other person knew of, or was responsible for, the presence of the hazardous or toxic substances. Environmental contamination may exist at our owned or leased auction sites, or at other sites on which we may conduct auctions, or properties that we may be selling by auction, from prior activities at these locations or from neighboring properties. In addition, auction sites that we acquire or lease in the future may be contaminated, and future use of or conditions on any of our properties or sites could result in contamination. The costs related to claims arising from environmental contamination of any of these properties could harm our financial condition and results of operations.
There are restrictions in the United States, Canada, Europe and other jurisdictions in which we do business that may affect the ability of equipment owners to transport certain equipment between specified jurisdictions or the salability of older equipment. One example of these restrictions is environmental certification requirements in the United States, which prevent non-certified equipment from entering into commerce in the United States. In addition, engine emission standards in some jurisdictions limit the operation of certain trucks and equipment in those markets.
These restrictions, or the adoption of more stringent environmental laws, including laws enacted in response to climate- and weather-related risks, could inhibit materially the ability of customers to ship equipment to or from our auction sites, reducing our GTV and harming our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Losing the services of one or more key personnel or the failure to attract, train and retain personnel could materially affect our business.
Our future success largely depends on our ability to attract, develop and retain skilled employees in all areas of our business, as well as to design an appropriate organization structure and plan effectively for succession. Although we actively manage our human resource risks, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in our efforts. If we fail to attract, develop and retain skilled employees in all areas of our business, our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected, and we may not achieve our growth or performance objectives.
The growth and performance of our business depends to a significant extent on the efforts and abilities of our employees. Many of our key employees have extensive experience with our business. These employees have knowledge and an understanding of our company and industry that cannot be readily duplicated. The loss of any key personnel, or the inability to replace any lost personnel with equally trained personnel, could impair our ability to execute our business plan and growth strategy, cause us to lose customers and reduce our revenues. In addition, the success of our strategic initiatives to expand our business to complementary service offerings will require new competencies in many positions, and our management and employees will have to adapt and learn new skills and capabilities. To the extent they are unable or unwilling to make these transformational changes or we are unable to attract new employees who are able to do so, we may be unable to realize the full benefits of our strategic initiatives. We do not maintain key person insurance on the lives of any of our executive officers or other key personnel. As a result, we would have no way to cover the financial loss if we were to lose the services of such employees. This uncertainty may adversely affect our ability to attract and retain key employees.
If any of our key personnel were to join a competitor or form a competing company, existing and potential customers could choose to form business relationships with that competitor instead of us. There can be no assurance that confidentiality, non-solicitation, non-competition or similar agreements signed by our former directors, officers, or employees will be effective in preventing a loss of business.
Failure to maintain safe sites could materially affect our business and reputation.
Our employees and customers are often in close proximity with mechanized equipment, moving vehicles and chemical and other industrial substances. Our auction sites and warehouses are, therefore, potentially dangerous places and involve the risk of accidents, environmental incidents and other incidents, which may expose us to investigations and litigation or could negatively affect the perception of customer and employee safety, health and security. Even in the absence of any incidents, unsafe site conditions could lead to employee turnover or harm our reputation generally, each of which would affect our financial performance. While safety is a primary focus of our business and is critical to our reputation and performance, our failure to implement safety procedures or implement ineffective safety procedures would increase this risk and our operations and results from operations may be adversely impacted.
Income and commodity tax amounts, including tax expense, may be materially different than expected, and there is a trend by global tax collection authorities towards the adoption of more aggressive laws, regulations, interpretations and audit practices.
Our global operations are subject to tax interpretations, regulations, and legislation in the numerous jurisdictions in which we operate, all of which are subject to continual change.
We accrue and pay income taxes and have significant income tax assets, liabilities, and expense that are estimates based primarily on the application of those interpretations, regulations and legislation, and the amount and timing of future taxable income, as well as our use of applicable accounting principles. Accordingly, we cannot be certain that our estimates and reserves are sufficient. The timing concerning the monetization of deferred income tax amounts is uncertain, as they are dependent on our future earnings and other events. Our deferred income tax amounts are valued based upon enacted income tax rates in effect at the time, which can be changed by governments in the future.
The audit and review activities of tax authorities affect the ultimate determination of the actual amounts of commodity taxes payable or receivable, income taxes payable or receivable, deferred income tax assets and liabilities, and income tax expense.
There is no assurance that taxes will be payable as anticipated or that the amount or timing of receipt or use of the tax-related assets will be as currently expected. Our experience indicates that taxation authorities are increasing the frequency and depth of audits and reviews. The Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) has been conducting audits for our 2014, 2015, 2020, 2021 and 2023 taxation years.
On December 3, 2024, the CRA issued the Company a Notice of Assessment and Statement of Interest for C$79.1 million ($57.8 million), for the taxation years 2010 through 2015, inclusive of C$37.7 million ($27.5 million) in income taxes, and C$41.4 million ($30.2 million) in interest and penalties. The CRA is asserting that one of the Company’s Luxembourg subsidiaries, which was in operation from 2010 to 2020, was a resident in Canada from 2010 through 2015 and that its worldwide income should be subject to Canadian income taxation.
In February 2025, the Company filed a Notice of Objection with the CRA as it believes it is and has been in full compliance with Canadian tax laws and it intends to pursue all available administrative and judicial remedies necessary to resolve this matter. In addition, the Company paid a deposit of C$39.5 million ($28.8 million) to the CRA in early February 2025, recorded within other non-current assets, the minimum required by law as part of the CRA’s objection process. In the event that the Company prevails in its objection or subsequent legal proceedings, the deposit would be refunded with interest to the Company. In June 2025, the Company filed a Notice of Appeal with the Tax Court of Canada. In October 2025, the Canadian Crown filed a response to the Company’s Notice of Appeal with the Tax Court of Canada maintaining the CRA’s assertion and requesting that the Company’s appeal be dismissed. The Company believes the Crown’s response is without merit and plans to continue to litigate.
In the event that the Company’s tax filing position is not upheld by either the CRA or by a court of last resort, the Company would incur and record the amounts assessed in income tax, interest and penalties in its consolidated financial statements, which could have a material negative effect on the Company’s results of operations.
In addition, in late 2024, the CRA requested information regarding the 2016 to 2020 taxation years for the same matter, which the Company provided in January 2025. In September 2025, the CRA requested additional information and clarification regarding previous submissions to which the Company responded and provided the additional information in October 2025. The Company has not received a notice of assessment relating to the 2016 to 2020 taxation years. Depending on the outcome of this matter, the Company could incur additional income taxes, penalties and interest relating to the 2016 to 2020 taxation years, which could have a material negative effect on its results of operations.
In addition, future tax authority determinations, including changes to tax interpretations, regulations, legislation or jurisprudence, could have a material impact to our financial position. The fact that we operate internationally increases our exposure in this regard given the multiple forms of taxation imposed upon us. Further and more generally, there has been increased political, media and tax authority focus on taxation in recent years; the intent of which appears to be to enhance transparency and address perceived tax avoidance. As such, in addition to tax risk from a financial perspective, our activities may expose us to reputational risk.
Our substantial international operations expose us to additional risks that could harm our business, including foreign exchange rate fluctuations that could harm our results of operations.
We conduct business in many countries around the world and intend to continue to expand our presence in international markets, including emerging markets.
Although we report our financial results in U.S. dollars, a significant portion of our revenues and expenses are generated outside the U.S., primarily in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. In particular, a significant portion of our revenues are earned, and expenses incurred, in the Canadian dollar and the Euro. The results of operations of our foreign subsidiaries are translated from local currency into U.S. dollars for financial reporting purposes. If the U.S. dollar weakens against foreign currencies, the translation of these foreign currency denominated revenues or expenses will result in increased U.S. dollar denominated revenues and expenses. Similarly, if the U.S. dollar strengthens against foreign currencies, particularly the Canadian dollar and the Euro, our translation of foreign currency denominated revenues or expenses will result in lower U.S. dollar denominated revenues and expenses. We do not currently engage in foreign currency hedging arrangements on any of our revenues or expenses. Fluctuating currency exchange rates may negatively affect our business in international markets and our related results of operations.
In addition, currency exchange rate fluctuations between the different countries in which we conduct our operations impact the purchasing power of buyers, the motivation of consignors, asset values and asset flows between various countries, including those in which we do not have operations. These factors and other global economic conditions may harm our business and our results of operations.
Other risks inherent in doing business internationally include, but are not limited to the following: (a) trade barriers, trade regulations, currency controls, import or export regulations, tariffs and other restrictions on doing business freely; (b) local labor, environmental, tax, and other laws and regulations, and the potential for adverse changes in such laws and regulations or the interpretations thereof; (c) difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations; (d) economic, political, social or labor instability or unrest; (e) terrorism, war, hostage-taking, or military repression; (f) corruption; (g) expropriation and nationalization, or difficulties in enforcing or protecting our property rights, including with respect to intellectual property; (h) increased exposure to high rates of inflation; and (i) unpredictability as to litigation in foreign jurisdictions and enforcement of local laws.
If we violate the complex foreign and U.S. laws and regulations that apply to our international operations, we may face fines, criminal actions or sanctions, prohibitions on the conduct of our business and damage to our reputation. These risks inherent in our international operations increase our costs of doing business internationally and may result in a material adverse effect on our operations or profitability.
Our business operations may be subject to a number of federal and local laws, rules and regulations governing international trade, including export control regulations.
Our business operations may be subject to a number of federal and local laws, rules and regulations, including the Export Administration Regulations, or EAR, maintained by the U.S. Department of Commerce, economic and trade sanctions maintained by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, and similar laws and regulations in Canada, the UK and the EU. These laws and regulations restrict us from providing services to, or otherwise engaging in direct or indirect transactions or dealings with, certain countries, territories, governments, and persons. We have implemented procedures designed to maintain compliance with these laws, including monitoring, on an automatic and manual basis, the identity and location of potential sellers and buyers. We can offer no assurances that these procedures will always be effective.
If we were to violate applicable export control or sanctions, we could be subject to administrative or criminal penalties, which in certain circumstances, could be material. We could be subject to damages, financial penalties, denial of export privileges, incarceration of our employees, other restrictions on our operations, and reputational harm. Further, any action on the part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, OFAC or other applicable regulator against the company or any of our employees for potential violations of these laws could have a negative impact on our reputation, business, operating results and prospects.
Failure to comply with anti-bribery, anti-corruption, and anti-money laundering laws, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, or the FCPA, the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, or the CFPOA, and similar laws associated with our activities outside of the U.S. could subject us to penalties and other adverse consequences.
We are subject to the FCPA, the CFPOA, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. §201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, the United Kingdom Bribery Act of 2010, or the U.K. Bribery Act, and similar other anti-corruption, anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in countries in which we conduct activities or facilitate the buying and selling of equipment, including the EU. We face significant risks if we fail to comply with the FCPA, the CFPOA and other anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws that prohibit companies and their employees and third-party intermediaries from authorizing, offering or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or benefits to foreign government officials, political parties or candidates, employees of public international organizations, and private-sector recipients for the corrupt purpose of obtaining or retaining business, directing business to any person, or securing any advantage. In many foreign countries, particularly in countries with developing economies, it may be a local custom that businesses engage in practices that are prohibited by the FCPA, the CFPOA or other applicable laws and regulations. In addition, we leverage various third parties to sell our solutions and conduct our business abroad. We and our other third-party intermediaries may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities. We may be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of these third-party intermediaries, our employees, representatives, contractors, partners, and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities. Our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and other corporate policies mandate compliance with these anti-bribery laws, which often carry substantial penalties.
Any violation of the FCPA, other applicable anti-bribery, anti-corruption laws, and anti-money laundering laws could result in whistleblower complaints, adverse media coverage, investigations, loss of export privileges, severe criminal or civil sanctions and, in the case of the FCPA, suspension or debarment from U.S. government contracts, which could have a material and adverse effect on our reputation, business, operating results and prospects. In addition, responding to any enforcement action may result in a materially significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and significant defense costs and other professional fees.
We are pursuing a long-term growth strategy that may include acquisitions and developing and enhancing an appropriate sales strategy, which requires upfront investment with no guarantee of long-term returns.
We continue to pursue a long-term growth strategy that contemplates upfront investments, including (i) investments in emerging markets that may not generate profitable growth in the near term, (ii) adding new business and information solutions, and (iii) developing our people. Planning for future growth requires investments to be made now in anticipation of growth that may not materialize, and if our strategies do not successfully address the needs of current and potential customers, we may not be successful in maintaining or growing our GTV and our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely impacted. We may also not be able to improve our systems and controls as a result of increased costs, technological challenges, or lack of qualified employees. A large component of our selling, general and administrative expenses is considered fixed costs that we will incur regardless of any GTV growth. There can be no assurances that our GTV and revenues will be maintained or grow at a more rapid rate than our fixed costs.
Part of our long-term growth strategy includes growth through acquisitions, which poses a number of risks. We may not be successful in identifying appropriate acquisition candidates, consummating acquisitions on satisfactory terms or integrating any newly acquired or expanded business with our current operations. Our ability to acquire other businesses or technologies, make strategic investments or integrate acquired businesses effectively may also be impaired by adverse economic and political events, including trade tensions, and increased global scrutiny and evolving regulatory expectations relating to acquisitions and strategic investments. Additionally, significant costs may be incurred in connection with any acquisition and our integration of such businesses with our business, including legal, accounting, financial advisory and other costs. We may also not realize the anticipated benefits of, and synergies from, such acquisition. We cannot guarantee that any future business acquisitions will be pursued, that any acquisitions that are pursued will be consummated, or that we will achieve the anticipated benefits of completed acquisitions.
Third-party claims, litigation, regulatory proceedings or government investigations to which we are subject or in which we become involved, regardless of their merit, could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
From time to time we may be subject to third-party claims, lawsuits, regulatory proceedings or government investigations into whether our business practices comport with applicable law, which may include claims with respect to intellectual property, antitrust, breach of contract, employment, mergers and acquisitions and other matters. The merit, outcome and impact of such claims, proceedings or investigations cannot be predicted with certainty, but regardless of the merit or outcome, these claims, proceedings or investigations can have an adverse impact on us because of legal costs, diversion of management resources, negative publicity and other factors. While the results of these claims, proceedings or investigations have not historically had a material effect on us, we may not be able to defend ourselves adequately against these claims, proceedings or investigations in the future. If any claims or proceedings are decided against us or if a settlement requires us to pay a large monetary amount or take other action that materially restricts or impedes our operations, our profitability could be significantly reduced and our financial condition or results of operations could be materially affected. Additionally, the outcome of a proceeding may differ materially from the Company's best estimate.
Privacy concerns and our compliance with current and evolving domestic or foreign laws and regulations regarding the processing of personal information and other data may increase our costs, impact our marketing efforts, or decrease adoption and use of our products and services, and our failure to comply with those laws and regulations may expose us to liability and reputational harm.
Governments and regulators around the world continue to propose and adopt new, or modify existing, laws, regulations and interpretative guidance addressing data privacy, data protection, data sovereignty and the processing of data, generally. Although we monitor the regulatory environment and have invested in addressing these developments, such as through our cybersecurity and privacy readiness programs, these laws may require us to incur further compliance costs to make changes to our practices, products and services to enable us or our customers to meet the new legal requirements. In addition, if we are found to have breached any such laws or regulations, we may be subject to enforcement actions that require us to change our practices, products and services, which may negatively impact our revenue, as well as expose us to liability through new or higher potential penalties and fines for non-compliance, civil and criminal penalties, and litigation for alleged violations, as well as adverse publicity that could cause our customers to lose trust in us and negatively impact our reputation and business in a manner that harms our financial position. These new or proposed laws and regulations are subject to differing interpretations that may change over time resulting in further compliance costs, as well as diversion of resources to monitor and address developments. New and proposed laws and regulations may also be inconsistent among jurisdictions or conflict with other laws and regulations. As a result, these requirements and other potential self-regulatory standards and industry codes of conduct could require us to take on more onerous obligations in our contracts, restrict our ability to store, transfer and otherwise process data or, in some cases, impact our ability to offer certain services in certain locations, to deploy software or data solutions, to market to current and prospective customers, or to derive insights from customers’ online activity and data globally.
We believe that laws and regulations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia the European Union and in other jurisdictions will be increasingly restrictive in the field of data privacy and protection and will in turn result in an increase in regulatory burdens for us to address to continue meeting our customers’ expectations, in particular in relation to the sharing of personal information with third parties, the use of machine learning and big data, and the tracking of online activities for advertising. As our capacity to process large volumes of data increases, customer sentiment towards increased transparency and control and further interpretive guidance from regulatory agencies may require us to change our operations and practices in a manner adverse to our business. In this uncertain and shifting regulatory and trust climate, even the perception that the privacy and security of personal information are not satisfactorily addressed or do not meet regulatory requirements could result in adverse publicity and reputation loss.
Our business continuity plan may not operate effectively in the event of a significant interruption of our business.
We have implemented a formal business continuity plan covering most significant aspects of our business that would take effect in the event of a significant interruption to our business, or the loss of key systems as a result of a natural or other disaster. Although we have tested our business continuity plan as part of the implementation, there can be no assurance that it will operate effectively or that our business, results of operations and financial condition will not be materially affected in the event of a significant interruption of our business. If we were subject to a disaster or serious security breach, it could materially damage our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our insurance may be insufficient to cover losses that may occur as a result of our operations.
We maintain property and general liability insurance. This insurance may not remain available to us at commercially reasonable rates, and the amount of our coverage may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that we may incur. Our auctions generally involve the operation of large equipment close to a large number of people, and despite our focus on safe work practices, an accident could damage our facilities, injure auction attendees and harm our reputation and our business. In addition, if we were held liable for amounts exceeding the limits of our insurance coverage or for claims outside the scope of our coverage, the resulting costs could harm our financial condition and results of operations.
Certain global conditions may affect our ability to conduct successful events.
Like most businesses with global operations, we are subject to the risk of certain global or regional adverse conditions, such as pandemics or other disease outbreaks, or natural disasters including extreme weather or other events, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, forest fires or floods that could hinder our ability to conduct our scheduled auctions, restrict our customers’ travel patterns or their desire to attend auctions or impact our online operations, including disrupting the internet or mobile networks or one or more of our service providers. If any of these conditions were to occur, we may not be able to generate sufficient equipment consignments to sustain our business or to attract enough bidders to our auctions to achieve world fair market values for the items we sell. This could harm our financial condition and results of operations. To the extent that climate- and weather-related changes cause rising sea levels, increased intensity of weather, and increased frequency of extreme precipitation and flooding, the risks noted above may increase.
Financial Risk Factors
Ineffective internal control over financial reporting could result in errors in our financial statements, reduce investor confidence, and adversely impact our stock price.
As a public company, we are required to furnish a report by management on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. This assessment is required to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting identified by our management. We are also required to have our independent registered public accounting firm issue an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting on an annual basis.
Any failure to maintain internal control over financial reporting could severely inhibit our ability to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations. If we are unable to conclude in the future that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm determines we have a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, our stock price could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the New York Stock Exchange, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.
We have substantial indebtedness, and the degree to which we are leveraged may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
At December 31, 2025, we have $2.5 billion of total debt outstanding, consisting of:
•$1.0 billion under an amended credit agreement (the “Credit Agreement”) entered into in December 2016 with a syndicate of lenders;
•$550.0 million aggregate principal amount of 6.75% senior secured notes due March 15, 2028, and $800.0 million aggregate principal amount of 7.75% senior unsecured notes due March 15, 2031 (together, the “Notes”); and
•$137.5 million of short-term debt with various maturities over the next 12 months.
There are no current drawings under our foreign credit facilities, and we can borrow an additional $1.1 billion under the Credit Agreement.
Our ability to make payments on and to refinance our indebtedness, as well as any future debt that we may incur, will depend on our ability to generate cash in the future from operations, financings or asset sales. Our ability to generate cash is subject to general economic, financial, competitive, legislative, regulatory and other factors that are beyond our control. We may not generate sufficient funds to service our debt and meet our business needs, such as funding working capital or the expansion of our operations. If we are not able to repay or refinance our debt as it becomes due, we may be forced to take certain actions, including reducing spending on marketing, advertising and new product innovation, reducing future financing for working capital, capital expenditures and general corporate purposes, selling assets or dedicating an unsustainable level of our cash flow from operations to the payment of principal and interest on our indebtedness. In addition, our ability to withstand competitive pressures and to react to changes in our industry, including both the live and online auction industry, could be impaired.
The lenders who hold our debt could also accelerate amounts due in the event that we default, which could potentially trigger a default or acceleration of the maturity of our other debt. In addition, our leverage could put us at a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors that are less leveraged. These competitors could have greater financial flexibility to pursue strategic acquisitions and secure additional financing for their operations. Our leverage could also impede our ability to withstand downturns in our industry or the economy in general. We may incur substantial additional indebtedness in the future. The terms of the Credit Agreement and the indentures governing the Notes will limit, but not prohibit, us from incurring additional indebtedness. If we incur any additional indebtedness that has the same priority as the Notes and the guarantees thereof, the holders of that indebtedness will be entitled to share ratably with the holders of the Notes and the guarantees thereof in any proceeds distributed in connection with any insolvency, liquidation, reorganization, dissolution or other winding-up of the Company. Subject to restrictions in the Credit Agreement and the indenture governing the Notes, we also will have the ability to incur additional secured indebtedness that would be effectively senior to the Notes offered hereby, to the extent of the value of the assets securing such obligations. If new indebtedness is added to our current debt levels, the related risks that we now face could intensify.
Our debt instruments have restrictive covenants that could limit our financial flexibility.
The terms of the Credit Agreement and the Notes indentures contain financial and other restrictive covenants that limit our ability to engage in activities that may be in our long-term best interests. Our ability to borrow under our Credit Agreement is subject to compliance with a consolidated leverage ratio covenant and a consolidated interest coverage ratio covenant.
The Credit Agreement includes other restrictions that limit our ability in certain circumstances to: incur indebtedness; grant liens; engage in mergers, consolidations and liquidations; make asset dispositions, restricted payments and investments; enter into transactions with affiliates; and amend, modify or prepay certain indebtedness. The indentures governing the Notes contain covenants that limit our ability in certain circumstances to: incur additional indebtedness (including guarantees thereof); incur or create liens on their assets securing indebtedness; make certain restricted payments; make certain investments; dispose of certain assets; allow certain restrictions on the ability of our restricted subsidiaries to pay dividends or make other payments to us; engage in certain transactions with affiliates; and consolidate, amalgamate or merge with or into other companies.
Our failure to comply with these covenants could result in an event of default that, if not cured or waived, could result in the acceleration of substantially all of our funded debt. We do not have sufficient working capital to satisfy our debt obligations in the event of an acceleration of all or a significant portion of our outstanding indebtedness.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
We may be unable to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, which could harm our reputation and adversely affect our growth prospects.
We regard our proprietary technologies and intellectual property as integral to our success. We protect our proprietary technology through a combination of trade secrets, third-party confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements, additional contractual restrictions on disclosure and use, and patent, copyright, and trademark laws.
We are the registered owners of many Internet domain names internationally. As we seek to protect our domain names in an increasing number of jurisdictions, we may not be successful in doing so in certain jurisdictions. Our competitors may adopt trade names or domain names similar to ours, thereby impeding our ability to promote our marketplace and possibly leading to customer confusion. In addition, we could face trade name or trademark or service mark infringement claims brought by owners of other registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks, including trademarks or service marks that may incorporate variations of our brand names. The legal means we use to protect our proprietary technology and intellectual property do not afford complete protection and may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep any competitive advantage. We cannot guarantee that: any of our present or future intellectual property rights will not lapse or be invalidated, circumvented, challenged or abandoned; our intellectual property rights will provide competitive advantages to us; our ability to assert our intellectual property rights against potential competitors or to settle current or future disputes will not be limited by our agreements with third parties; any of our pending or future patent applications will be issued or have the coverage originally sought; or our intellectual property rights will be enforced in jurisdictions where competition may be intense or where legal protection may be weak.
We also may allow certain of our registered intellectual property rights, or our pending applications or registrations for intellectual property rights, to lapse or to become abandoned if we determine that obtaining or maintaining the applicable registered intellectual property rights is not worthwhile. Further, although it is our practice to enter into confidentiality agreements and intellectual property assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, these agreements may not be enforceable or may not provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets or other proprietary information in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure or other breaches of the agreements.
Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy, reverse engineer, or otherwise obtain and use our products or technology. We cannot be certain that we will be able to prevent unauthorized use of our technology or infringement or misappropriation of our intellectual property, particularly in foreign countries where the laws may not protect our proprietary rights. Effective patent, copyright, trademark, service mark, trade secret, and domain name protection is time-consuming and expensive to maintain. Litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets, or to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of our resources. In addition, our efforts may be met with defenses and counterclaims challenging the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights or may result in a court determining that our intellectual property rights are unenforceable. If we are unable to cost-effectively protect our intellectual property rights, then our business could be harmed. If competitors are able to use our technology or develop proprietary technology similar to ours or competing technologies, our ability to compete effectively and our growth prospects could be adversely affected.
Risk Related to Our Industry
Competition could result in reductions in our future revenues and profitability.
The global used equipment market, including the auction segment of that market, is highly fragmented. We compete for potential purchasers and sellers of equipment with other auction companies and with non-auction competitors such as equipment manufacturers, distributors and dealers, equipment rental companies, and other online marketplaces. When sourcing equipment to sell at our auctions or other marketplaces, we compete with other onsite and online auction companies, OEM and independent dealers, equipment brokers, other third parties, and equipment owners that have traditionally disposed of equipment in private sales.
Some of our competitors have significantly greater financial and marketing resources and name recognition than we do. New competitors with greater financial and other resources and/or different business models/strategies may enter the equipment auction market in the future. Additionally, existing or future competitors may succeed in entering and establishing successful operations in new geographic markets prior to our entry into those markets. They may also compete against us through internet-based services and other combined service offerings.
If commission rates decline, or if our strategy to compete against our many competitors is not effective, our revenues, market share, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely impacted. We may be susceptible to loss of business if competing selling models become more appealing to customers. If our selling model becomes undesirable or we are not successful in adding services complementary to our existing selling model and business, we may not be successful increasing market penetration over the long-term, which could prevent us from achieving our long-term earnings growth targets.
Decreases in the supply of, demand for, or market values of used equipment, could harm our business.
Our revenues could decrease if there is significant erosion in the supply of, demand for, or market values of used equipment, which could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. We have no control over any of the factors that affect the supply of or demand for used equipment and the circumstances that cause market values for equipment to fluctuate including, among other things, economic uncertainty, the global geopolitical climate, disruptions to credit and financial markets, lower commodity prices, and our customers’ restricted access to capital. Recent economic conditions have caused fluctuations in the supply, mix and market values of used equipment available for sale, which has a direct impact on our revenues.
In addition, price competition and the availability of equipment directly affect the supply of, demand for, and market value of used equipment. Climate- and weather-related initiatives, including significant changes to engine emission standards applicable to equipment, may also adversely affect the supply of demand for our market values of equipment.
Risk Related to Our Organization and Governance
Our articles, by-laws, shareholder rights plan and applicable Canadian provincial and federal law contain provisions that may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control.
Certain provisions of our articles of continuance and by-laws, as well as certain provisions of the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) (the “OBCA”) and applicable Canadian securities law, could discourage potential acquisition proposals, delay or prevent a change in control or materially adversely impact the price that certain investors might be willing to pay for our common shares. For instance, our articles of continuance authorize our Board of Directors to determine the designations, rights and restrictions to be attached to, and to issue an unlimited number of, junior preferred shares and senior preferred shares. In addition, our by-laws contain provisions establishing that shareholders must give advance notice to us in circumstances where nominations of persons for election to our Board of Directors are made by our shareholders other than pursuant to either a requisition of a meeting made in accordance with the provisions of the OBCA or a shareholder proposal made in accordance with the provisions of the OBCA. Among other things, these advance notice provisions set a deadline by which shareholders must notify us in writing of an intention to nominate directors for election to the Board of Directors prior to any shareholder meeting at which directors are to be elected and set forth the information required in this notice for it to be valid.
Our Board of Directors has adopted a shareholder rights plan (the “Rights Plan”), pursuant to which we issued one right in respect of each common share outstanding. Under the Rights Plan, following a transaction in which any person becomes an “acquiring person” as defined in the Rights Plan, each right will entitle the holder to receive a number of common shares provided in the Rights Plan. The purposes of the Rights Plan are (i) to provide our Board of Directors time to consider value-enhancing alternatives to a take-over bid and to allow competing bids to emerge; (ii) to ensure that shareholders are provided equal treatment under a take-over bid; and (iii) to give adequate time for shareholders to properly assess a take-over bid without undue pressure. The Rights Plan can potentially impose a significant penalty on any person commencing a takeover bid that would result in the offeror becoming the beneficial owner of 20% or more of our outstanding common shares.
Any of these provisions, as well as certain provisions of the OBCA and applicable Canadian securities law, may discourage a potential acquirer from proposing or completing a transaction that may have otherwise presented a premium to our shareholders.
U.S. civil liabilities may not be enforceable against us, our directors, or our officers.
We are governed by the OBCA and a portion of our business is in Canada. Certain of our directors and officers reside outside of the United States, and all or a substantial portion of their assets, as well as a substantial portion of our assets, are located outside the United States. As a result, it may be difficult for investors to effect service of process within the United States upon us and such directors and officers or to enforce judgments obtained against us or such persons, in U.S. courts, in any action, including actions predicated upon the civil liability provisions of U.S. federal securities laws or any other laws of the United States.
Additionally, rights predicated solely upon civil liability provisions of U.S. federal securities laws or any other laws of the United States may not be enforceable in original actions, or actions to enforce judgments obtained in U.S. courts, brought in Canadian courts, including courts in the Province of British Columbia.
We are governed by the corporate laws of Ontario, Canada which in some cases have a different effect on shareholders than the corporate laws of Delaware.
We are governed by the OBCA and other relevant laws, which may affect the rights of shareholders differently than those of a company governed by the laws of a U.S. jurisdiction, and may, together with our charter documents, have the effect of delaying, deferring or discouraging another party from acquiring control of our company by means of a tender offer, a proxy contest or otherwise, or may affect the price an acquiring party would be willing to offer in such an instance.