Ritchie Bros. Holds Large Las Vegas Auction

31 March 1999

Ritchie Bros. Holds Large Las Vegas Auction

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia--March 30, 1999--Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated announces results from its Las Vegas auction held Monday.
    The auction, held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Monday, March 29th, attracted interested buyers from around the world. The auction, which followed the ConExpo trade show in Las Vegas, generated gross auction sales exceeding US$24 million.
    The auction attracted 1,446 bidders from all over the United States and several other countries. There were 428 successful buyers at the auction who purchased over 1,100 items.
    "We are pleased with the turnout for this sale," says Hec Ramsey, Sale Site Manager for Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers. "It was an enormous auction with bidders attending from 24 countries. They came from as far away as Chile, Korea, Mexico, UAE, Venezuela, Australia, Thailand, Sweden, Spain and New Zealand."
    The unreserved auction, with no pre-set minimums, featured equipment from American Asphalt & Grading Co., Sterling Crane, J.R. Jacks Construction Co. -- who is retiring after 29 years in the construction and trucking industry, and other owners.
    Featured equipment included: 651E motor scrapers, 631E motor scrapers, D11 crawler tractors, D10N crawler tractors, and 65-ton, 50-ton and 45-ton rough terrain cranes. There were also late model compactors, crawler loaders, end dump trailers, hydraulic excavators, loader backhoes, pickup trucks, skid steer loaders, truck tractors and wheel loaders. The auction also included an unused 1997 John Deere 310E loader backhoe and three unused 1999 Witzco Challenger lowboys.
    Ritchie Bros. is the world's leading auctioneer of industrial equipment, operating through over 50 locations throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East. The Company sells, through unreserved public auctions, a broad range of used industrial equipment, including equipment utilized in the construction, transportation, mining, forestry, petroleum and agricultural industries. Ritchie Bros. is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and maintains a website at www.rbauction.com.
    Investors and potential investors should note that this information may not be indicative of the overall financial performance of the Company for this or any other period.