RB Global, Inc. ($RBA)

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to RB Global's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Sameer Rathod, CFA, Vice President, Investor Relations and Market Intelligence. Please go ahead.

Hello, and good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our first quarter 2026 results. On the call with me today are Jim Kessler, our Chief Executive Officer; and Eric Guerin, our Chief Financial Officer. The following discussion will include forward-looking statements, including projections of future earnings, business and market trends. These statements should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements contained in our earnings release and periodic SEC reports. On this call, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. For the identification of these measures, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and the applicable reconciliation, please see our earnings release and SEC filings. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, Jim Kessler. Jim?

Thanks, Sameer, and good afternoon to everyone joining the call. I want to recognize our teams for their continued strong performance, particularly against the backdrop of the complex macro environment. As always, we are focused on the factors within our control to ensure we consistently overdeliver on our commitments and remain a trusted partner to our customers. Our execution in these areas was evident in the first quarter as our growth strategy and operating model continue to demonstrate durability with adjusted EBITDA increasing 11% on a 13% increase in GTV, as we have discussed, expanded and diversifying our business into complementary growth areas is a strategic priority, and we are executing accordingly. . In support of that strategy, we recently received HSR approval for the big iron transaction, satisfying a key regulatory conditions, and we now expect to close the transaction in the second quarter. Turning to commercial construction and transportation sector. Our growth strategy continued to deliver with GTV up 27% year-over-year. We are cautiously optimistic as customer feedback suggests early signs of improving confidence, supported by stabilizing used equipment values and continued activity in mega projects and civil infrastructure. At the same time, we believe that a portion of the quarter's volume growth reflects the early and uneven return of pent-up supply as sellers who defer decisions in 2025 began to reenter the market. Turning to the automotive sector. We delivered another strong quarter despite navigating disruption among our market alliance partners and buyers in Middle East. Our foremost priority remains the safety and well-being of our teammates in the region. Despite these headwinds, gross returns measured as the salvage values as a percentage of pre-accident cash value continue to expand, supporting approximately 10% year-over-year growth in U.S. insurance average selling prices. We believe this performance underscores the resilience and breadth of our marketplace and reflects our continued progress in enhancing the buyer experience and optimized in the auction format for our sellers. Unit volumes increased 1% year-over-year marking the fifth consecutive quarter of outperformance relative to the broader market. I am proud of our team's execution as we exceeded all service level commitments again. Last quarter, we announced an agreement in principle with one of our largest partners, and I am pleased to report that it has now been fully executed. We remain confident in our goal of delivering net market share gains in 2026 and as our focus on driving tangible P&L value for our partners continues to resonate and differentiate our platform. Importantly, in a competitive market, we will remain selective in pursuing volumes. We are prioritizing partners that align with our culture and ensuring the value we've realized from our differentiated marketplace platform reflects the meaningful benefits it delivers to our customers. Our confidence in our goal of continued market share gains was further reinforced at our industry leadership Smith, which again achieved record attendance, highlighting our strong and growing partner engagement, Partners walked away excited and energized by our marketplace overall strategic direction backed by our transparent, data-driven approach and continued innovation. I will now pass the call to Eric to review the financials and updated 2026 outlook.

Thanks, Jim. Total GTV increased by 13% to $4.3 billion in the first quarter, Automotive GTV increased by 7% in the quarter, driven primarily by higher average selling prices and a 1% increase in unit volumes. The average price per vehicle sold increased approximately 6% in the quarter, reflecting strength across both the salvage and remarketed vehicles. Unit volume growth reflected continued new wins in the sector. Though first quarter growth moderated partially due to changes in the auction calendar at the start of the year. In recent months, the inflation differential between automotive repair costs and used vehicle prices has widened slightly, which continues to support an increase in the total loss ratio. CDC Intelligent Solutions estimates the total loss frequency across all categories increased by 70 basis points to 23.6% compared to the prior year period. GTV in the commercial construction and transportation sector increased 27%, driven by strength in both unit volumes and ASPs First quarter results benefited from an outsized contribution related to the auction calendars of certain acquired businesses, which typically host their largest events early in the year. Excluding acquisitions, CC&T GTV increased approximately 16%. As market conditions continue to normalize, we are seeing early, but inconsistent signs of pent-up supply returning, which contributed to higher transaction activities during the quarter. Our ability to capture the growth is enabled by maintaining the industry's most comprehensive network of territory managers alongside the continued rollout of targeted programs designed to improve Protiviti and deepen customer engagement. The average price per lot sold increased due to improvements in the asset mix while like-for-like pricing remained relatively flat year-over-year. Excluding the impact of our recent acquisitions, total GTV across all sectors increased 9%. We are seeing strong organic growth in the underlying business. Moving to service revenue. Service revenue increased 5% in the quarter, driven by higher GTV partially offset by a decline in the service revenue take rate. The service revenue take rate declined 160 basis points year-over-year to 20.7%. A portion of this decline is optical, reflecting a larger mix of higher ASP assets when compared to the prior year. Under our aggressive buyer fee schedule, higher-priced assets fall into lower percentage features which can make the reported take rate lower. While the percentage rate is lower, higher ASP items are attractive from a total service revenue dollar perspective. There were additional impacts on the service revenue take rate from recent acquisitions and divestments. Adjusted EBITDA increased 11% in the quarter, driven by higher GTV volumes and increased contribution from inventory returns. These benefits were partially offset by lower service revenue take rate. Our continued focus on cost discipline supported strong profit flow-through with adjusted EBITDA growth of 11%, outpacing service revenue growth of 5% adjusted earnings per share in the first quarter increased by 13%, primarily driven by a higher operating income and a lower net interest expense. Now turning to guidance. We are raising our 2026 outlook and now expect gross transaction value to grow between 6% and 9% for the full year, with adjusted EBITDA growth of approximately 8% at the midpoint. Note that our updated guidance does not reflect any impact from Big Iron. Consistent with our strategy, we remain focused on growing adjusted EBITDA at a faster rate than service revenue, and due 2026 as a year of volume-led growth. We are concentrating on the elements within our control, including advancing cost savings initiatives, deploying technology, designed to enhance yard level efficiency and executing against our operating model to drive productivity and operating leverage. With that, let's open the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Gary Prestopino with Barrington.

Jim, Eric, Sameer. As I look back on my notes from last quarter, you had mentioned that there was a plethora of RFPs in the auto sector that were in the pipeline. Did any of them come to market this quarter? And were there any wins that you could see that you got from these RFPs that came to market?

Gary, I do not recall talking about how many RFPs were out there. We typically don't. So I really don't have a comment on that question.

Okay. You have -- what you said was you have a strong RFP pipeline. So I was just trying to get an idea of what basically can...

I think what we talk about is when you look over the next 3 years, when you think about what comes up on a RFP, a lot of the stuff that will come up isn't representative of our current customer base. So it's something that we have an opportunity to go after. But it was nowhere inside quarter or anything like that, it was over a longer period of time. .

Your next question comes from the line of John Healy with Northcoast Research.

Jim, I wanted to ask, last couple of days, we've seen some earnings reports from auto insurers. I think I go in particular, talked about some dramatic increases in claims frequency, kind of hit the profit line for those guys. Can you talk to what you're seeing out of insurers as it relates to claim frequency? And if given the recent strength in used car prices, might it be likely or prudent to think that maybe total loss frequency may plateau in the near term. Just curious to get your thoughts on the puts and takes as it relates to kind of to the funnel of your business?

John, good question. And I'll pass this over to Sameer, who kind of handles a lot of this external information.

John, Sameer here. I think in terms of how we view the market, I think I've looked at the data you're talking about in terms of used car pricing increasing a little bit with some of the third-party data. The way we look at it internally is looking at that inflation spread between cost of repair versus what the census grow comes up with for used car pricing inflation. I think the wholesale pricing leads a little bit compared to the retail level. At the moment, we're not noticing any dramatic shifts in terms of claim frequency or anything like that, but we wouldn't comment specifically about any of our providers.

And then just a follow-up. And obviously, there's a percentage of your vehicles that go to the Middle East, given the tensions and the war activity. Are cars able to get there right now in any capacity? And is that having some sort of bleed-through impact yet on ASPs on the salvage side.

John, I'll start and assume your Eric, want to jump in. Eric and Sameer feel free. Look, we kind of look at our whole market alliance and not just one specific segment. And based on what we're seeing in our whole line, any time you have a disruption like you do and you have a conflict in the Middle East, it's going to affect this segment, but we believe we can manage the other segments. And Eric gave our guidance. We feel really confident in that. And based on that guidance is the optimism that we believe international still leads for us and what it can be for us. But like everything, we have Middle East business, Ritchie Bros. and IEA and our real concern is more of the safety of our team. but we believe it's something we can manage inside of our business and inside of the guidance that we gave. .

Your next question comes from the line of Steven Hansen with Raymond James.

Look really strong GDP performance in GTV CC&T Obviously, I think even ex acquisition, you said up 16%, if I caught that correctly. Just trying to square your comments around seeing pent-up supply returning to the market quickly early on -- do you see sort of evidence that's going to continue through into the next quarter or 2? I mean, how do the auctions in the calendar? How are they stacking up thus far in terms of registration? I'm just trying to get a sense for whether that's an upfront surge and then plateauing out or if it's going to continue through the balance of the year?

Steven, I'll start and Eric and Sameer again, feel free to jump in. Look, I think one of the issues with the singles that we face? Is there just some lumpiness along with organic growth. To be honest, we're just staying focused on growing market share in each of the markets that we perform in CCT. And that's really what our focus is on. The one thing we can't control is when people make decisions of when they want to dispose of equipment, but when they're ready, our team is ready to handle it. And I think we're going to have a little bit of lumpiness, but we feel really cautiously optimistic about what we're seeing from our partners and what the future quarters are going to look like for us. .

Just 1 follow-up if I may, is just on the M&A side. You've been active, you referenced the big iron closing early. You've also got the disclosure here that you acquired Blackmont in the U.S. South by the looks of it here, a smaller deal. But just trying to get a sense for why that was attractive and what the pipeline looks like?

Yes. Really for Blackman's and who we acquired, their main business in Arkansas and a little bit in Dallas. Arkansas wasn't a geography that we had a presence in. And they also had a sector in railroads that we found attractive that we wanted to be able to leverage with the acquisition. And then big iron, we find a sector of ag very attractive in the U.S., something that we've been doing for a number of years up in Canada. So those two things are what made us attractive to both targets.

Your next question comes from the line of Craig Kennison with Baird.

It might be for you, Sameer. But I'm wondering if you can help us unpack volume trends for the automotive space. In particular, I'm interested in what the headwind was from the absence of catastrophes in this quarter versus the same period last year? And then what were the tailwinds from share gains and the total loss rate as it relates to your 1% growth rate overall?

Yes. Craig, I'll start and then pass it over to Sameer. So we so we can talk through some of the push and takes. And look, it's always to you think about quarter-by-quarter. We kind of look at our business a little bit longer term than that, but we feel really confident about the unit volume increase for us as we think about the next couple of quarters coming up. And with that, I'll pass over to Sameer to add any color about headwinds and tailwinds.

Yes, Craig, I think it's fair to say there are industry dynamics at play in terms of insurance, in terms of under insurance, things like that. But you can see we reported 1% unit volume growth, and we feel really comfortable saying that we are gaining share U.S. and globally.

Okay. And then maybe just as a follow-up, could you just comment on how we should think about your take rate evolving over time, especially as we include or when we include Dave iron in results.

Yes, Craig, I'll start, and Eric, feel free to jump in. Look, I think I mentioned this a number of times. We run our business based on dollars and not a percentage. And as we and attractive sectors like agriculture and especially when you get into a real estate component, that percentage is going to change. And as we close this deal, I'm sure Sameer and Eric will help all of you understand that what it looks like. But again, I just want to clarify, we run this business based on dollars and how do we get that to flow through the most efficient way into our P&L and not by your percentage. But with that, I'll pass it over to Eric. .

Yes. I think, Jim, you commented on. And we've been pretty clear. Even if you look at the 160 basis points, and I said this in my prepared remarks, when you get higher ASP performance, which we did with our regressive tiering on the buyer side, you get a less take rate, but we like those dollars that flow through to our top line. So I think, to Jim's point, we're really focused on making sure we have the most efficient P&L. We've talked about in the past, GSA has a different take rate. We will provide more detail in the ag space that has a different take rate when you look at farm land and things like that. So our focus is making sure we optimize the P&L.

Your next question comes from the line of Sabahat Khan with RBC Capital Markets.

Maybe more for a question for Eric and kind of for the whole team. Hoping to get a bit more color on, just given kind of the performance through quarter 1. If you can just dig a little bit into what you baked into the guidance in terms of puts and takes. Did the quarter go as expected and the guidance increase maybe just reflects some more confidence or were there share shifts or other trends in the quarter that made you a bit more confident to be able to kick up the guide. Just trying to understand sort of more of the qualitative and the country puts and takes to the extent you can share.

Yes. Thanks for the question. Yes, Q1 was in line with our expectations, a little bit ahead, and that's what's highlighted in the guidance. What I would say, there are some headwinds as we know, with fuel and some other costs, but we have that built into our guidance. And on the automotive side, we're gaining share. We believe our 1% growth is continuing to grow share there. And CC&T we also believe that we're gaining share and we reflected both of those impacts into the updated guidance. I don't know, Jim, if you had any additional comments there or?

Yes. Just at a high level, I think what Eric and for myself, peren from the team, we are operating at a very high level right now in every avenue of our business. And I think we feel the confidence of the team's execution of why we're able to increase guidance.

And then just 1 on the capital allocation and the M&A side along the lines of Steven's question. Balance sheet is in good shape. You guys have announced at least put out there a share buyback program. You alluded a bit to ag being of interest in the past. Are you able to sort of maybe just even in broad brush just talk about whether it's more capabilities or still regions in the U.S. or around the world that you hope to fill in with M&A? And where would sort of buybacks at this point in the game rank in the preference order on the profit line? .

Yes, I can start, and then Jim can fill in. Look, what we've said is -- and you can look at what we've done, whether it be JM wood, it gave us a different region in the country, a different capability with municipalities Jim commented on Blackman gives us a different region and then gives us access to rail. So I think if you look at what we've done, you'll see that is the pattern, whether it gives us new capabilities or a different region. We talked about DLG last year when we went into Australia. So those are the types of opportunities that we are looking at as RB Global, and they give us an opportunity to get new capabilities, new regions. So we're excited about the opportunities. And again, we have ag that we just talked about with Big Iron. I don't know, Jim, any additional color there.

Eric, what I would just add is I think what is great and what really makes me excited about our future business is we have the ability to do all the but that describe take a look at Australia, how we entered a salvage market. We did that organically and the team did a fantastic job of going into a new country for salvage and executing against the plan really flawlessly. And then if you look at the acquisition of IEA and Ritchie Bros., I think the team did an amazing job. What we're always going to look at is can we do this organically. But at the end of the day, what we're looking for, what gives our investors the best return. And if it's organically, we're going to choose that path. If it's an M&A, we're going to do that path. But hopefully, what everyone has seen from us over the last 3 years, our ability and our playbook to do M&A either organically or through acquisition. And this is something that this team is really good at and it's something I'm excited about for the future.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Lick with Stephens.

I was wondering just 1 point of clarification. The agreement that you talked about today, the auto agreement -- is that the 1 that you talked about in the last call, which was not signed, but it was an agreement in principle, just a clarification there. And then also on the -- Okay. Perfect. And then on the average insurance prices, I think you said they were up 10%. I'm just curious what's driving that because that's a bit of an acceleration over the last 2 quarters. I think it's 2.5% Q3 and 7 was Q4. Just kind of curious what's driving that?

Yes. Yes, I think what we said is U.S. insurance were up 10%. And I think this speaks to the strength of the marketplace. So we've made a number of enhancements for the buyer on our website. We talked about crime descriptors in the past, we've talked about optimizing auction format. So a lot of this is some of the improvements we've been making on our website and then the continued kind of march to get more and more buyers onto our marketplace. .

And then just a quick follow-up. On the Middle East situation that you referenced I'm not sure if you said it, but did that -- what type of impact did that have on units, if anything?

We're not quantifying the number of units. But as you can imagine, it was -- we do have market alliance partners in that region that are being impacted. I'm not sure if you had anything?

Yes. I'll just add, Jeff. Like I mentioned before, our market line is very large with multiple countries that we deal with. And right now, based on what's going on, we think we have an avenue of how to navigate this. Like everyone, we're hoping the conflict end sooner than later. But right now, as we think about guidance and everything else. We believe we have everything in our control that we can manage this. So I think we feel comfortable where we're at right now. .

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Feniger with Bank of America.

I appreciate it. Eric, you kept SG&A was up, I think, 4% year-over-year. Cost of service is flat when GTV is up 11%. Can you just talk about the performance in the quarter? What's sustainable? I heard you earlier talk about cost savings and yard efficiency -- did that show up in the quarter? Is that some of these initiatives you're talking about? Is that more on the come that we should be thinking about?

Yes. I think -- thanks for the question. Ongoing, and Jim and I have been very clear about this. Our expectation is that creating operating leverage within this P&L is evergreen. We'll continue to look for opportunities across the business. Now it may lumpy in some quarters, sometimes there may be additional investment in SG&A ahead of volume, then you have that volume come in after. When we look at cost of services and in the yard, I think our operations team, I think this is to Jim's comment, we really feel like across the business, we're hitting on all cylinders, and our operations team has just done a wonderful job and they're making sure we are operating as efficient as possible. So those types of initiatives will continue as we move forward. So it's not an event. It's just the way we operate the business.

Great. And just is there anything we should think about with towing costs, obviously, higher fuel how does that kind of flow through? Is there a chance if fuel stays a certain degree at a certain level, do we see players such as yourself pass that through? Do you see fees be implemented? I'm just kind of curious what you're feeling now and how we should kind of think about that with the business. .

Yes. Yes, thanks for the question. Yes, we've built into our guidance the headwind related to the fuel. We do have some contracts where we can pass that through others that doesn't get passed through, it would be a headwind for the business. So we'll continue to manage that as we move forward through the year.

Great. I'm just going to sneak 1 quick 1 in. Obviously, we heard a lot about CC&T and you guys mentioned share gains. I am curious, I think last quarter, you talked about Europe this reserved auction strategy, some things you're piloting there. Can we see that broadly also adopt in the U.S. to a bigger degree potentially in the rental channel. I'm just kind of curious, it sounds like there's actually a lot of opportunities for share gains in CCT. We haven't heard that in a while, most of the focus on auto. Just curious if you could flesh out some things you guys are seeing out there that gets you excited.

Michael, there's a bunch we can probably take the next hour and talking about what gets us excited. But let me just address first the reserve. And just wanted to remind the group, we did our first pilot in the first quarter. We are very happy how that pilot went and we are continuing to do more of those auctions internationally. And when we think about it, we just don't about it as reserve. We think about it as fixed price auctions and we're really excited of how big that serviceable addressable market is for us to go after. We play in a very small part of it today. So yes, along with our traditional auction business, we can gain share. And then the fixed price side of the marketplace, we think we have tremendous upside that we play in a very small part of it. Yes. The only thing I would add there is we are going to do the reserve auction where that is where or how business is done. There are opportunities in those markets, but it's not our expectation that, that would go into markets on a broad base that are currently unreserved and operate that way.

Your next question comes from the line of Krista Friesen with CIBC.

Maybe I was just wondering if you could give us a little bit more color on how things are going in Australia. And if there's any less of learned there in terms of your land and expand strategy as you're thinking about other countries to move into.

Yes. So I'll start, and Eric or Sameer, feel free to jump in. We are really happy about the performance on a lot of our operational metrics, which are similar to what you see in the U.S. when you talk about net returns and our ability to execute and ASPs are not as good as they are in the U.S., but it's in our projection and our expectations. So I think we feel really good. I think as you think about other countries, what we want to make sure is we go into countries that operate similarly to the Canada market, Australia to the U.K. that we're able to leverage the scale and the playbook that we've built by doing this. But we want countries that have similar economic dynamics and what they need to actually see a salvaged company come in that can improve the process and the workflows that exist today. So we would look for countries that match the countries I mentioned. .

And then just on the automotive side. It sounds like you're gaining share there. Are you seeing any sort of irrational behavior from any competitors in the marketplace when it comes to pricing or anything?

Yes. Look, we don't really talk about competitors in any of that. What we stay focused on is what we can control. And we want to be in a very rational market place, and that's our goal. So -- but we don't really get into comments about what any 1 competitor is doing.

Your next question comes from the line of John Gibson with BMO Capital Markets.

Just had 1 on the CC&T side, general trends that you're seeing. Are you seeing any more in-sourcing of used equipment sales by dealers? Or maybe offset. I mean, your results suggest that it's going the other way, but just wondering what you're seeing especially with some of the newer equipment that's coming on to the market.

Yes. Look, for us here, Ritchie Bros., we've seen every different cycle that you can imagine in different cases from dealers. So I wouldn't say anything is different than what we've seen in the past.

And your next question comes from the line of Maxim Sytchev with NBCM.

Is it possible to quantify the pull forward for CCT in the quarter at all?

I'll pass this to Eric.

Yes. No, I don't think we could quantify the pull forward. It's more just timing of the auction calendars. We also talked about on the automotive side. Early in the year, we had a number of storms, some things moved. So I think our goal is to make sure that we optimize our marketplace for our buyers and sellers. And if things move across quarters, that's not our primary objective for us.

Sure. But I guess because given the policy uncertainty, there was some hesitance maybe to transact at some point, do you feel right now kind of buyers and sellers are sort of ready to go? Or how would you qualify that if there is such a thing.

Yes. I would say we're cautiously optimistic, but I wouldn't straight line our Q1 performance and say that's what we're expecting for the full year. I've highlighted in the guidance what we expect for the full year performance. So you can use that as a reference point. Does that help?

And then quick question in terms of the GST impact, can you just qualify what was included and excluded for adjusted EBITDA ventures?

Yes. We provided a reconciliation of that. But broad brush, it was overall, I think, about $11 million or so impact. And we carved out almost half of that, but it's disclosed in our financials.

Okay. And just 1 quick last one. Is there anything unusual around the very strong free cash flow and working capital efficiency in Q1? .

Yes, nothing unusual. No problem.

There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to RB Global's CEO, Jim Kessler for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

To close, I want to recognize the teams across RB Global for a strong start to 2026 and the execution discipline that delivered our first quarter results. As we move through the year, our priorities are straightforward, seeing our customer engagement, run the business efficiently and keep investing in the platform capabilities that drive durable share gains and profitable growth. We appreciate your time today and your continued interest in RB Global, and everyone, have a good week and talk to you soon. .

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.