September 16th, 2009

ADESA is going public

ADESA

According to a press release by KAR Holdings the parent company of ADESA

KAR Holdings, Inc., a leading provider of wholesale used vehicle and salvage auction services in North America, announced today that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. The Company intends to apply to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange.

NYSE

September 9th, 2009

ADESA gets new CEO effective immediately

ADESA CEO Tom Caruso

ADESA CEO Tom Caruso

KAR Holdings, Inc.  announced in a press release yesterday that Tom Caruso, ADESA, Inc.’s Chief Operating Officer, will assume his new role as Chief Executive Officer and President of ADESA effective immediately.

Tom Caruso commented, “I look forward to the new challenges as CEO and President of ADESA. In my new role, I will focus on providing leadership to all of the employees of ADESA while ensuring we provide exceptional service to all of our customers.”

January 23rd, 2009

Wild day at ADESA golden Gate

adesagolden_gateThis is off of Tracy Press:

A man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly threatening a co-worker with a knife, according to witnesses and the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s deputies say Saul Garcia, 35, told a younger co-worker that he would seriously hurt him and send him to the hospital.

A driver for west-of-Tracy car auctioneers Adesa Golden Gate, Garcia is charged with assault with a deadly weapon and was booked at San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp.

Garcia’s manager Gary Mobley said that a woman employee told a 21-year-old co-worker that Garcia had said something offensive about her.

The younger employee decided to defend her and picked a fight with Garcia, Mobley said.

“It started with an argument between two employees inside of a van,” Mobley said. “And one guy decided to stick up for his female co-worker.”

Garcia pushed the other man out of the van and they rushed into the personnel office, where supervisors separated them and called the police.

Employees told sheriff’s deputies that the fight started while the employees were being shuttled to different parts of the car auction compound so they could drive cars to their buyers.

• Contact a Tracy Press reporter or editor at 835-3030 or tpnews@tracypress.com.

December 11th, 2008

KAR Holdings (ADESA) hires new CEO for Automotive Finance Corporation (AFC)

According th their press release:

“Don Gottwald has been named AFC’s new president and CEO, effective immediately. Gottwald will report directly to KAR Holdings, Inc.’s Chairman and CEO, Brian Clingen.”

November 17th, 2008

Adesa and IAA doing good during economic downturn

ADESA auto auction

According to a press release from the auto channel:

CARMEL, Ind. November 13, 2008: AR Holdings, Inc. today reported its third quarter financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2008. For the third quarter of 2008, the company reported revenue of $444.6 million as compared with third quarter 2007 revenue of $394.3 million, an increase of 12.8%. Adjusted EBITDA, excluding pro forma adjustments for recent acquisitions and cost savings as defined in the companys senior credit facility dated April 20, 2007, increased 4.2% to $101.8 million in the third quarter of 2008, as compared with third quarter 2007 adjusted EBITDA of $97.7 million.

September 10th, 2008

Adesa announces sale of seven auctions

The official statement off of their site:

Carmel, IN, September 9, 2008 – KAR Holdings, Inc. announced today the completion of the sale and leaseback of land at seven used vehicle auctions located in the states of California, Florida, Texas and Washington. The company received net cash proceeds of approximately $73.1 million from the sale of the land. The transaction includes lease agreements with initial terms of 20 years each, plus multiple renewal options. The properties will continue to house ADESA’s used vehicle auctions. KAR Holdings, Inc. will utilize 50% of the net proceeds to repay debt in accordance with terms of its Senior Credit Agreement.

Market watch has a much more detailed report that includes a plan to spend $12.5 million of those proceeds on improvements to the San Diego location.

August 13th, 2008

KAR Holdings, Inc. Reports Second Quarter 2008 Results

This just off of marketwatch.com:

Last update: 4:27 p.m. EDT Aug. 12, 2008
CARMEL, Ind., Aug 12, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — KAR Holdings, Inc. today reported its second quarter financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2008. For the second quarter of 2008, the company reported revenue of $468.5 million as compared with second quarter 2007 revenue of $399.7 million for the combined companies of ADESA, Inc. (”ADESA”) and Insurance Auto Auctions, Inc. (”IAAI”), an increase of 17.2%. Adjusted EBITDA, excluding pro forma adjustments for recent acquisitions and cost savings, as defined in the company’s senior credit facility dated April 20, 2007, increased 15.7% to $122.6 million in the second quarter of 2008, as compared with second quarter 2007 adjusted EBITDA of $106.0 million for the combined companies of ADESA and IAAI.
August 8th, 2008

Truck missing from Adesa Ocala Auction

when I saw this on Ocala.com I thought it was a bit unusual to be relaying 11 vehicles one of which is a f-250. I’m thinking it may have been more than one ruck that dropped them and more than one truck picking them up or the load has 10 very small cars so that the 11th vehicle could be an f-250. I titled my post with the word missing instead of stolen because one of my trucks left a car at a transport lot because he couldn’t fit them all on and left the key in the “secret” tailpipe location. In our case it appears that it was mistakenly transported by another auto transporter because about 2 weeks later it showed up in the same spot with the keys back in the tail-pipe. It had normal road grime but no extra miles.

Truck stolen from Adesa Auction

Published: Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 4:01 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 4:06 p.m.

OCALA – Marion County sheriff’s deputies were looking for a 2006 Ford F-250 that was reported stolen from Adesa Auction, 540 S.W. 38th Ave.

It was taken sometime between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, according to a Sheriff’s Office report.

Employee Amber Valvo told deputies that on Tuesday around 5 p.m., 11 vehicles were delivered to Adesa Auction. Valvo said the vehicles were left outside of the fenced compound because another auto transport company was supposed to pick them that night.

Valvo said people with the transport company didn’t arrive until Wednesday around 8:30 a.m. to pick up the 11 vehicles. They noticed that the 2006 Ford F-250, valued at about $22,000, was missing.

Valvo told deputies the keys had been left in the truck.

Anyone with information about the case can call the Sheriff’s Office at 732-9111 or Crime Stoppers at 368-STOP, or visit http://ocalacrimestoppers.com.

- Austin L. Miller

June 27th, 2008

ADESA to Acquire Internet-Based Auction Software Company, Live Global Bid

ADESA auto auction

This is off of Business Wire

ADESA, Inc. today announced that it plans to acquire Live Global Bid, Inc. (LGB), a leading provider of Internet-based auction software and services, on June 30, 2008. The LGB technology allows auction houses to broadcast their auctions through simultaneous audio and video feeds to all participating Internet users from any location.

As we see our market change with the influence of technology it affects the transporters because right now a dealer can buy a few cars at every sale instead of traveling to the sale twice a month so your average cars per stop is lowered. Of course adding stops to your route lowers profits as well. If we see this trend continue, (and I think we will), then the next logical step will be to sell the cars on the internet without actually shipping them to the auction facility. It seems efficient to skip the extra shipping, but with the logistics nightmare it creates I think using the auction lot as the hub, in what basically becomes a hub and spoke distribution system, makes more sense to me.

June 6th, 2008

ADESA DALLAS has a lot going on.

Having just completed a successful test of a real time vehicle locater system at their facility in Mesquite, TX they have now signed a deal to build a new facility in Hutchins, TX. According to the Dallas Business Journal they will build 200,000 square feet of buildings at the new 170 acre site.

adesa dallas auto auction for dealers

I drove down to their facility today to see first-hand how the MyDealerLot™ system worked in an auto auction evironment. This is one of the auctions where the auto transporters pull inside of the secure area to load. They have worked out procedures to make sure the RFID tags are removed before loading so they don’t lose tags. At the auctions where the cars are checked out of an exit gate before being loaded in the transport lot it will be a lot easier to control. When they lay out the new facility with the locator system in mind it will be a lot easier to put in all of the transmitters and exciters. In this installation they made extensive use of solar powered units to keep from needing to dig up the lot for power. Where they were mounting on buildings with power they used conventional units like this one

adesa-dallas-auto auction car locator using rfid

gcresto.jpgI had an opportunity over lunch to hear George Cresto explain not only about this current system but also some of their research into gps based systems. They have a transmitter that can last up to a year on one battery charge and are studying the feasability of being able to track vehicles anywhere. I think this could work well for vehicle transport brokers. The cost will be higher than the RFID tracking tags so it will probably not be a viable alternative for auctions that need to track several thousand vehicles at one time but for a broker that has maybe a 100 vehicles moving at any given time it would allow them to locate the vehicle anytime during the move. Since he is looking at this working on the same web-based design it will be very easy to let the consumer track his own vehicle as well.