RB Global (RBA) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

DATE

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026 at 5 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Vice President, Investor Relations and Market Intelligence - Sameer Rathod
• Chief Executive Officer - James Kessler
• Chief Financial Officer - Eric Guerin

TAKEAWAYS

• Gross Transaction Value (GTV) -- $4.7 billion, a 11% increase driven by automotive performance and acquisition contributions.
• Total Revenue -- $1.3 billion, a 11% increase reflecting higher GTV and inventory sales.
• Service Revenue -- $933.4 million, a 5% increase due to higher GTV partially offset by take rate declines.
• Inventory Sales Revenue -- $383.7 million, a 28% increase resulting from changes in heavy equipment and transportation customer contract preferences.
• Non-GAAP Diluted Earnings Per Share (EPS) -- $1.13, a 6% increase reflecting higher operating income and lower net interest expense.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- $387.2 million, a 6% increase driven by GTV growth and inventory returns.
• Service Revenue Take Rate -- 20.0%, a 110 basis point decrease due to business mix from acquisitions and automotive volume-related price incentives.
• Automotive GTV -- $2.4 billion, a 13% increase supported by unit volume gains and higher selling prices.
• Automotive Unit Volume -- 658,800 lots, a 11% increase representing the sixth consecutive quarter of outperforming the broader market.
• Heavy Equipment and Transportation (HE&T) GTV -- $2.1 billion, a 8% increase primarily due to the BigIron acquisition.
• Inventory Rate -- 5.9%, a 180 basis point increase driven by performance in the HE&T sector.
• Total Loss Frequency -- 23.3%, a 90 basis point increase reflecting repair cost inflation relative to used vehicle prices.
• Share Repurchases -- 1.5 million shares, retired for $150 million during the second quarter.
• Common Stock Dividend -- $0.33 per share, a 6.5% increase reflecting cash generation confidence.
• 2026 GTV Growth Guidance -- 9% to 11%, raised from the previous outlook of 6% to 9%.
• 2026 Adjusted EBITDA Guidance -- $1.495 billion to $1.545 billion, with growth projected at 8.6% at the midpoint.
• BigIron GTV Contribution -- $500 million, expected for the full year 2026 following the May acquisition.
• Full Year Tax Rate -- 23% to 25%, maintained as the projected range for both GAAP and adjusted figures.
• Capital Expenditures Guidance -- $350 million to $400 million, focused on property, plant, equipment, and intangible assets.
• U.S. Insurance Automotive ASP -- 4% increase, reflecting improvements in both salvage and remarketed vehicle categories.
• Net Income -- $143.6 million, a 31% increase primarily due to higher operating income.

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RISKS

• Kessler stated, "the one thing I can tell you we weren't expecting is diesel to go up like it did because of the Iran war," noting the company absorbed these costs in the second quarter.
• Kessler noted that "customer decision-making became more deliberate during the second quarter," as partners evaluated liquidation values against interest rates and macroeconomic uncertainty.

SUMMARY

Management reported growth across the marketplace platform, highlighted by market share gains in the automotive sector and the strategic integration of BigIron into the U.S. agriculture market. The company raised its full-year guidance for GTV and adjusted EBITDA, citing momentum in insurance partnerships and recovery in total loss frequencies. The company transitioned its reporting structure to a new Heavy Equipment and Transportation sector to better align with internal management practices following recent acquisitions. Management emphasized a commitment to operating leverage by targeting EBITDA growth ahead of service revenue growth through technology and yard optimization.

• CEO Kessler announced the expansion of the relationship with the company's largest automotive insurance partner to all 50 states, now covering both personal auto and commercial lines.
• Management identified the U.S. agriculture market as a $60 billion annual transactional volume opportunity, with approximately 50% consisting of equipment and 50% consisting of real estate.
• CFO Guerin noted that BigIron's real estate transactions typically carry take rates in the "low single-digit range," which is expected to influence the overall service revenue take rate as that business scales.
• The company integrated substantial volume across 30 states for its largest partner within a 90-day period while maintaining service level agreements.
• Kessler indicated that heavy equipment customers are pursuing a "blended recovery" in their P&Ls, becoming more conscious of liquidation values and interest rate environments.
• The company reported that GSA business carries strong revenue per unit economics despite a mathematically lower take rate because units sell for significantly higher prices.
• In Australia, management is focused on securing a second carrier partner following the ongoing ramp of the Suncorp contract and previous investments in Smith Broughton.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• ASP: Average Selling Price, the mean price at which assets or vehicles are sold through the marketplace.
• GSA: General Services Administration, referring to the company's business involving government surplus assets.
• GTV: Gross Transaction Value, the total proceeds from all items sold through auctions and online marketplaces.
• HE&T: Heavy Equipment and Transportation, a reporting sector including machinery, agriculture, forestry, and energy assets.
• SLA: Service Level Agreement, a commitment between a service provider and a client regarding performance and quality standards.
• Total Loss Frequency: The percentage of insurance claims where the cost of repair exceeds the vehicle's value, leading to it being declared a total loss and sold for salvage.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to RB Global Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the call over to Sameer Rathod, Vice President, Investor Relations and Market Intelligence. Sameer, please go ahead.

Sameer Rathod: Hello, and good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our second quarter 2026 results. On the call with me 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 are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements contained in our earnings release and periodic SEC reports. 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 would like to turn the call over to our CEO, Jim Kessler. Jim?

James Kessler: Thanks, Sameer, and good afternoon to everyone joining us today. Last quarter, we said our priorities are straightforward, continue to gain share, execute with discipline and position the business for durable long-term growth. Our second quarter results reinforce our confidence that our strategy is working. Our teams across the organization delivered another strong quarter, remaining focused on serving our partners, advancing our strategic priorities and operating with discipline. Those efforts drove 11% GTV growth and 6% adjusted EBITDA growth, underscoring the resilience of our marketplace platform and the durability of our long-term growth strategy. Turning to BigIron. We are pleased to complete our acquisition in May.

BigIron establishes RB Global as a scaled, trusted global partner in the U.S. agriculture sector, creating a new growth platform. While agriculture has long been an important end market for us, particularly in Canada, BigIron significantly expands our presence in the United States with a leading marketplace that services buyers and sellers of farm equipment and agriculture real estate. BigIron brings a highly respected brand with an experienced team that has built trusted local customer relationships over decades in the U.S. agricultural Heartland. Their footprint is highly complementary to ours with limited overlap with our existing business.

By combining BigIron's deep industry expertise and strong customer relationships with RB Global scale, technology capabilities and global buyer network, we believe we are well positioned to create greater value for customers while further strengthening our long-term growth profile. Just as important, this acquisition reinforces the strategy that has consistently created value at RB Global, applying our marketplace capabilities to adjacent sectors where we can drive greater liquidity, stronger customer outcomes and attractive long-term returns. Integration is off to a strong start, and our teams remain focused on executing thoughtfully by preserving the trusted local relationships and sector expertise that had made BigIron successful.

BigIron significantly expands our participation in a highly attractive U.S. agriculture market, which accounts for the majority of the approximately $60 billion of annual transactional volume in North America. Roughly half of that opportunity consists of equipment with the remainder comprised of land and agricultural real estate. Note that consistent with market norms, real estate transactions carry take rates in the low single-digit range. We see 3 durable drivers that we believe can support our growth in this market. First, recurring equipment replacement and ongoing investment in farm productivity supports sustained transaction activity. Second, generational farm transitions, retirement and industry consolidation consistently bring quality equipment and agricultural real estate to market.

And third, the market remains significantly underpenetrated by online auctions, which we believe creates meaningful opportunities to increase adoption of digital and online marketplaces over time. Together, these characteristics, combined with BigIron's strong brand awareness, create an attractive opportunity for RB Global as a scaled marketplace operator. While our presence in U.S. agriculture has historically been limited, it is a market where we have strong track record of success in Canada. Over the past 25 years, we have built a leading agriculture marketplace in Canada through a combination of disciplined acquisition and sustained organic growth.

We are a trusted partner and leading marketplace for agriculture assets there, and that experience provides what we believe is a proven playbook for expanding into a significantly larger U.S. market. BigIron immediately adds scale and strengthens our ability to apply RB Global's marketplace capabilities to another large attractive end market, reinforcing our confidence in the potential long-term growth and shareholder value creation opportunities ahead. Turning to our financial results. Our heavy equipment and transportation sector continued to demonstrate the strength and resiliency of our strategy with GTV increasing 8% year-over-year. In the first quarter, we noted early signs of pent-up supply returning to the market.

While that trend persisted in selected end markets, customer decision-making became more deliberate during the second quarter, dependent on the end markets they serve. Despite this backdrop, we continue to strengthen customer engagement and advance key commercial initiatives in the competitive market. We remain focused on sales execution and positioning the business to capture incremental market share and volume if market activity and supply conditions improve. Turning to the Automotive segment. The business continues to perform well and remains one of the strongest examples of our ability to gain market share through differentiated performance. Our overdelivery against all our SLAs continue to resonate in the market.

Unit volumes increased 11% year-over-year, marking our sixth consecutive quarter of outperformance relative to the broader market and reinforcing our conviction that we are well positioned to achieve net market share gains in 2026. One of the clearest proof points of our momentum is the expansion of our relationship with our largest automotive insurance partner, who we now support across all 50 states in both personal auto and commercial lines. This expansion reflects the trust we have earned, the strength of our long-standing partnership and the measurable P&L value we believe we consistently deliver. Successfully executing this expansion demonstrates both the strength and scalability of our operating platform.

Within 90 days, the team successfully integrated substantial additional volume across 30 states while continue to execute at a high level across the broader business. Service level performance remained strong and improved in certain areas, underscoring our ability to support growth through operational excellence. As we discussed, we remain disciplined in how we pursue growth. The expansion with our largest partner is a good example. It shows we can drive market share gains without compromising the discipline that defined our strategy, but that's not the only place we see room to grow.

We have a proven ability to execute a meaningful additional capacity within our network, and we're energized by the opportunity to put our model to work for new partners. We continue to believe our culture of drive and value to our partners' P&L is what will win new relationships. The market is competitive, and there will be pluses and minuses as we move forward, but trajectory is what matters, and we remain confident that we are well positioned to achieve the net market share gains in 2026. I will now turn the call over to Eric to review the financials and provide an update to the outlook.

Eric Guerin: Thanks, Jim. Before we begin, I wanted to highlight that we have realigned our GTV reporting sectors to better reflect how we manage and evaluate the business internally. Each sector continues to represent the assets we transact across all of our marketplace brands. Our heavy equipment and transportation sector now includes our former commercial construction and transportation sector expanded to incorporate agriculture as well as machinery assets that we previously classified under other. These include industrial support equipment, equipment attachments, assets used to support aggregate, forestry, mining and oil and gas industries. Our automotive sector remains unchanged and continues to include passenger vehicles, both salvage and remarketed.

Our other sector now primarily consists of real estate, consumer, marine, rail, and aircraft assets. As a reminder, real estate transaction volume are inherently lumpy from quarter-to-quarter. Now moving to the financial results. Total GTV increased by 11% to $4.7 billion in the second quarter. Automotive GTV grew 13% in the quarter, driven primarily by an 11% increase in unit volumes and higher average selling prices. Average price per vehicle sold was approximately 2% higher, reflecting improvement in both salvage and remarketed vehicles. Within U.S. insurance, ASP increased 4% compared to the prior year. Unit volume growth was supported by continued net market share gains, while broader industry volumes remain under pressure.

Leading indicators of the total loss frequency have improved modestly in recent months. The inflation differential between automotive repair costs and used vehicle prices continues to be supportive of higher total loss frequency. Reflecting these dynamics, CCC Intelligent Solutions estimates that the total loss frequency increased 90 basis points year-over-year to 23.3%. GTV in the heavy equipment and transportation sector increased by 8% in the quarter, reflecting contributions from recent acquisitions. Excluding the impact of our recent acquisitions, total GTV increased by 7%. Moving to service revenue. It increased 5% in the quarter, driven by higher GTV, partially offset by a lower service revenue take rate. The service revenue take rate declined 110 basis points year-over-year to 20%.

The decline primarily reflects changes in business and portfolio mix from acquisitions and growth in certain businesses, such as GSA, which has strong revenue per unit economics but carry lower service revenue take rates. Volume-related price incentives in automotive also contributed to the year-over-year decline in the service revenue take rate. As we have discussed, we prioritize service revenue dollars and adjusted EBITDA dollars over percentage take rates. As our business mix evolves, we believe these measures provide a better indication of underlying economics and value creation of the business. Adjusted EBITDA increased 6% in the quarter, driven by higher GTV volumes and increased contribution from inventory returns, partially offset by business mix and take rate impacts.

We continue to focus on profit flow-through and adjusted EBITDA growth of 6% outpaced service revenue growth of 5%, consistent with our continued focus on operating leverage. Adjusted earnings per share increased by 6%, primarily driven by higher operating income and lower net interest expense, partially offset by a higher adjusted tax rate. Before moving to our outlook, I wanted to note that as part of our disciplined capital allocation strategy, the Board has approved a $0.02 increase to our quarterly common stock dividend, raising it to $0.33 per share. This represents an approximately 6.5% increase and reflects the strength of our cash generation and our confidence in the business.

In addition, as of today, we have repurchased and retired approximately 1.4 million shares for $150 million. Together, these actions reflect our balanced and disciplined approach to capital allocation, which supports shareholder return while preserving the flexibility to invest in the long-term growth and value creation. Now moving to the outlook. We are raising our 2026 outlook and now expect gross transaction value to grow in the range of 9% to 11%, with adjusted EBITDA growth of approximately 8.6% at the midpoint. This updated outlook reflects our revised assumptions for the core business as well as expected contribution of approximately $500 million in GTV from the BigIron acquisition.

Consistent with our strategy, we remain focused on generating adjusted EBITDA growth ahead of service revenue growth and continue to see 2026 as a year of volume-led growth. We remain focused on execution, productivity and delivering operating leverage. With that, let's open the call for questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Sabahat Khan with RBC Capital Markets.

Sabahat Khan: Maybe just on the discussion around sort of take rate and the focus on dollars. I guess maybe just for our modeling purposes, should we assume that whether we look at H2 -- H1 or Q2, like do we have a good mix of overall business reflected here that we can maybe use the current EBITDA margin as sort of the ballpark range to build from? Or do you think maybe waiting until year-end '26 when BigIron is fully baked in might be a better reflection? I'm just trying to figure out how to sort of think about margins as we -- what base rate to use as we build out margins.

James Kessler: Yes. No, great question, and I'll start and then I'll pass it over to Eric if he wants to provide more detail. We're right at the earliest of stages with BigIron. And as the farming season is ongoing, I don't think you're really going to see BigIron, especially with the real estate side of the equation until a lot later as we go through this year. And still some of the smaller acquisitions we did as we work our way through those integrations. So I don't think there's a point yet where we're there where you can look at what our resting spot is. But with that, I'll pass it over to Eric.

Eric Guerin: No, Jim, I agree. I would wait to your original question, probably wait through the end of this year so we can get through the farming season, get BigIron stabilized a bit, and that should get closer to a run rate. But as I noted in the prepared remarks, right, we're really focused on the service revenue and our revenue per unit. So there's going to be movement. So I wouldn't say that even that take rate, it could fluctuate up or down from where we exit. But as a starting point for modeling that I would wait until the end of the year.

Sabahat Khan: Great. And then maybe just for my follow-up, I think you guys have sort of evolved your capital allocation a little bit. We have more buyback activity now. Do you feel from an acquisition front, at least the bigger pieces are in place? Maybe if you can just detail out as we move past BigIron, what is the runway for M&A? And maybe just should we expect if bigger pieces are in place, is return of capital maybe a bigger part of the story going forward? And I'll pass the line.

James Kessler: Yes. Look, it's a difficult question to answer because there are so many different avenues and opportunities. I would probably say our main focus is always on organic growth of what we can drive through the business. But as opportunities come up, we're always going to look at other verticals and assets that are complementary where we can add the expertise that we do. Some of that is companies raising their hand and say it's time for them to figure out how they want to monetize. But with that, I will pass it over to Eric for any other comments.

Eric Guerin: Yes. I think as Jim had indicated, and you can see from what we've done over the last year is we are really focused on investing in the core business, returning where we can to shareholders where it makes sense and M&A. So we'll continue to flex as opportunities come up and maximize the value creation for our shareholders.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Steven Hansen with Raymond James.

Sameer Rathod: Apologies, Steven. There was a technical delay. If you wouldn't mind starting your question again, that would be great.

Steven Hansen: Yes, sure. I'm just curious if there's any specific differences you'd highlight between BigIron and your Canadian ag franchise. And just in relation to that, what do you think really the key milestones are in terms of integrating the business outside of traditional back office stuff?

James Kessler: Yes. No. So I'll start, and Eric, feel free to jump in with anything. I think the business itself from a partner and a customer standpoint are very similar to what they need from liquidity and the timing of the farm-in cycle. So I think that's very common across all of our platforms. The thing that's always unique is when you buy 2 founder businesses, there are 2 founders that run it, and they all run them slightly differently. So as you get into the back office and the community and how they do business, that's really where the difference comes. But it's something that we've done multiple times with different founders, so something we're used to.

And Eric, if you have any other additional comments, feel free.

Eric Guerin: Yes. I think the only thing I would add is we're really happy with how the integration is going. We have -- our integration office is really moving, the back office of the business forward to integrate it where we can into RB Global and making sure that we continue to focus on the customer experience on the front end, to Jim's point, making sure what makes BigIron great, we keep focused on that, and that's the customer experience.

Steven Hansen: That's helpful. And just as a follow-up, Jim, I just wanted to go back to your comments in your prepared remarks about, I think, customer decision-making becoming more deliberate in the quarter. Is that something you're seeing carrying through into the third quarter? And where are you seeing that specifically? Is it in some of the larger equipment, smaller equipment across the board regionally? Just trying to get a sense for where that decision-making confidence is coming through.

James Kessler: Yes. Look, for us, it's a very hard question to answer because we deal with so many different verticals and sectors of this industry. And we typically don't go down to that level in terms of guidance, what we -- how we think about it. But in our industry, there are so many different decision points of why someone comes to us for their liquidation needs. And it's always hard, right, to pinpoint when that is going to happen. But look, I think we're in a great spot when that decision is made to be able to capture that market share like we have done in our history and like we're going to do going forward.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Gary Prestopino with Barrington.

Gary Prestopino: A couple of questions here. You cited in the narrative that you're seeing a change in customer preference for contracts from consignment sales to inventory purchases. Is there anything going on in the market that's driving that? Or is that just kind of an anomaly, Jim?

James Kessler: Yes. Look, I wouldn't call it. I think we go through periods where that is more important in certain periods, and this just happens to be one. And like I mentioned, we deal in so many different sectors. It's hard to narrow it down to one specific thing, but it's really a customer need more than it is anything else.

Gary Prestopino: Okay. So nothing to do with the industry. And then just getting back to the prior question, we say customer decision-making is becoming more, what is it deliberate was the word you used? Do you take that as being that they're pulling back, just taking longer to make a decision? What exactly does that mean?

James Kessler: No. Look, how I would describe it is ever since we got into COVID and as you think about new equipment pricing and what happened with that and equipment they have to dispose of, we kind of been through this big cycle of new equipment came in. We had a lot of disposals. And now as you're thinking about interest rates and everything going on and what's going on in Iran doesn't help people getting comfortable, what's going on at the Fed at this point. So people are just really very conscious of what did I buy equipment for, what kind of liquidation value do I need?

And we kind of talk about it as a blended recovery to fit their P&Ls. And I think they're just being very conscious and very good stewards of their money.

Operator: Our next question comes from Craig Kennison with Robert W. Baird.

Craig Kennison: I wanted to go to Slide 3. It mentions an expanded relationship with your largest automotive insurance partner, and you got to all 50 states. How many states did you have before? And when did that incremental volume begin to flow through your platform?

James Kessler: Yes. I don't think we're going to get into how many states we had before, but you can tell when we say 50, what that means going forward. And probably over the last 90 days, we've been transitioning in that volume.

Craig Kennison: Okay. And then the other question I had in the same bullet, you mentioned commercial lines. Can you add more color as to what you mean by commercial lines? I assume it's not automotive, but what are some examples?

James Kessler: Yes. Just think about trucks is probably the best example. So heavier type of transportation. So anything else, this is kind of what our insurance partners call everything but automotive is they call commercial, which is different than what Ritchie would call commercial in the past.

Craig Kennison: So these are assets owned by commercial operators, but they feel more automotive in general?

James Kessler: You got it. They're more rolling than heavy equipment.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Lick with Stephens.

Jeffrey Lick: Congrats on a great quarter. I was just wondering the 11% auto lot growth, maybe you could expand a little bit more beyond the -- it seems like you're getting share and volume from other sources than just that one insurance customer. I wonder if you could elaborate on that whether it's GSA and Direct Line kind of kicking in more. Any details there would be great.

James Kessler: I'll pass that question over to Eric.

Eric Guerin: Yes. Look, I think we won't go into specifics. But what I would say is we are really happy with the performance, and thanks for pointing out the other opportunities that we've already announced. When you look at DLG, how that's performing, when you look at what's going on in Australia with Suncorp. So we're really comfortable with the unit growth across the board outside of just the one large partner that we discussed on the call.

Jeffrey Lick: And then just maybe a little help of clarification. I think you referenced service revenue and tied it to the economics of some of the incremental business you picked up. Could you explain maybe how that manifests itself in terms of the differing economics or how you -- how the promotions or whatever kind of flow through there, what that is?

Eric Guerin: Yes. So when you think about the GSA, my comments were specifically talking about some of the acquisitions have different take rates, but we're really happy with the revenue per unit. So we've talked about GSA in the past where those units sell for significantly higher. So therefore, just by math, our take rate is lower, but the revenue per unit is in line with what we would expect for the services we're providing.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of John Babcock with Barclays.

John Babcock: I guess I did want to just go into the take rate a little bit here. I was wondering, is this fully run rating per quarter? I mean I assume that you probably only have a partial quarter of that big contract win. And so I wanted to get a sense for how much of the quarter reflected that contract to the extent you can comment and also whether or not there were any upfront items that may have impacted the take rate more in this quarter perhaps than we might see down the line?

Eric Guerin: Yes. And I think this was a bit of the earlier question as well. What I would say is this isn't the full run rate yet. We have BigIron that's coming in that we talked about real estate having low single-digit take rates. So I would say you'd get closer to a normal run rate later in the year. Now there's opportunities for us to improve take rate, and there's opportunities like BigIron where it will impact the take rate in a negative way, right? So to answer your question, it is not at run rate yet. You have to wait for BigIron to be fully incorporated into it.

John Babcock: Okay. That's fair. And then just a quick follow-on here. You've obviously done well winning share with your largest insurer. Just kind of curious, as you look at this from a go-forward basis, what can you do in addition to volume incentives providing ROI to the insurers to maintain that market share. So as you get a couple of years down the line, the contract comes up for renegotiation, what do you do between here and there and then also when you get there that helps you to maintain that volume?

James Kessler: Yes. So John, look, I think what we stay focused on is operational excellence of how we operate at our yards every day, providing the highest level of service, which, at the end of the day, an insurance carrier isn't going to make a decision just based on rebate because you don't want someone that's operating at a lower level and you give that up in gross returns, net returns and everything else. So we stay very focused on value that we drive to our partners' P&L and how we're doing that in innovation, how we're doing that in SLAs, how we do that consistently every car that we get in every day.

So for us, we stay laser-focused on performing the best, but we fully realize for us to be successful, I have to drive value to each and every one of our partners, and that's automotive comment that is an industrial construction, heavy equipment and transportation comment, we are laser-focused making sure we are adding value to our partners. And I think that is what makes us different than any competitor that we have on any side of the sectors we serve.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of John Healy with Northcoast Research.

John Healy: I guess I'll be kind of direct with this one. The biggest question we're getting from investors right now is what sort of changes might be a foot in the salvage business with [indiscernible] one of the founders of the company coming back to run the business? And what do you think that does to the industry? And obviously, who knows. But I'd love to get your thoughts on this, Jim. Can you kind of help us think about what percentage of your salvage business is contractual firm visibility into it for the next couple of years?

Any thoughts you could give us on, what I would say, renewals that are coming up, what sort of pipeline could be competed against? I'd love for you to help us understand the visibility you have into retaining business. And I feel like it's a silly question given the wins that you've gotten recently, but I would just love to get how you guys are thinking and help investors think about that.

James Kessler: Yes, John, look, I don't think it's a silly question. Besides the fact, I can't answer a lot of it. But look, the good thing is I think we tried to give the group insight in our last earnings call. And we talked about our big contracts being renewed. And if you go back and read the script from before, we talk about our top 2 being signed, which gives you an idea of stability for the company.

And we also talked about, look, when I look at the majority of what comes up over the next 3 years, yes, of course, we have some coming up, but there is a lot more that comes up where we have the chance to gain share, not that we're going to gain everything that comes up. There's going to be pluses and minuses. But like when we talked about for '26, we see that we're going to be a net market share positive as we think about it.

But if you go back and look at the last transcript, I think it lays out some of the stability questions that you answered and what we see over the next 2 to 3 years of what comes up, why we feel really good about our continuing gaining share over that period of time.

John Healy: Great. And then just on the BigIron acquisition. Obviously, ag is a huge market. And I would love to just kind of get your thoughts on -- and maybe I missed it earlier, but just maybe the incremental TAM that you guys are opening up there. And is this an asset where you may need to stand up more capacity or sales force for the next year or 2. So obviously, it's a good-sized operator, but just kind of curious if there might be an investment phase that gets tacked on to this end market.

James Kessler: Yes. John, great question. And one thing that gets us really excited about ag, we just don't think -- even though BigIron is the U.S., we already do this in Canada. So we have a lot of expertise in it. But we actually think of agriculture as global, right? We have a European business that we think this fits really well. So we really think about ag as a global vertical for the company. And look, the great thing is I think you can look at construction, industrial transportation of us growing from -- look, I have team members that were Ritchie Bros, when they were $1 billion.

And now we're a lot higher than that in GTV, which came with everything you mentioned, right? How do you grow the business? How do you do it effectively and efficiently? How do you train sales members as we go through this. But we definitely bought BigIron for the U.S. to get started to really grow that business and to get the type of share that we get in the other verticals that we're in, and we think we have that. And I think we laid out, look, we think there's $30 billion of equipment in North America. We think there's $30 billion of real estate.

And if you look at the kind of share that we have traditionally in all the markets we serve, we don't see any reason why we can't replicate that into the future.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Michael Feniger with Bank of America.

Michael Feniger: I realize 2026 is a year of volume-led growth. Do you see in '27, we get more of that -- just generally, we get more of that flow-through from GTV growth into EBITDA and free cash flow. Is there anything you would point out to -- in 2026, either higher fuel or operating expenses or ramping some of these contracts that are in '26 that would lower or kind of fall out in '27? And if I could squeeze one more in, somewhat on this topic. I think in 2026, there was not a big shift higher in fees and rates.

This was a year it seemed RB wanted to compete on the service offerings and win share, get after units and grow. I'm just kind of curious if you think any cost inflation this year, could we see the industry in '27 take up certain fees and rates or what we need to see for that to happen?

James Kessler: You got it, Mike. I'll start and I'll pass it to Eric. And I'll just be a lot more high level than kind of what you asked in that. Look, I think the tough thing for us is as we think about '26, the one thing I can tell you we weren't expecting is diesel to go up like it did because of the Iran war. And pretty much in the second quarter, we absorbed most of that. We've made some decision as we go forward, but it's hard for me to tell you what's going to happen as we think about getting out of '26 and heading into '27.

But the one thing we're committed to as a management team is we are going to run this business very efficiently and optimized. So we are always going to look at what's the ability when we add technology, when we make the experience better, we're going to say, okay, do we deserve to increase our take rate to be able to do that. But it's going to come with we're providing something to our partners, and we have a reason of why we're doing it. And I think we have opportunity to do that as I think about the future.

But the other thing we're also going to do is as I think about AI and enablement and our cost structure, I think we have a lot of opportunities to manage the business effectively and efficiently that we're never going to stop from how do we get the best flow-through to EBITDA and generate as much cash. That is something that the whole executive team believes in and something that we're going to drive. I know it wasn't probably the detailed question that you asked, but I'll pass it for Eric if he wants to add any more color.

Eric Guerin: Yes. I think here's the detail I would provide and our commitment as a management team, and Jim and I have been very clear about this, and it was in my prepared remarks. We are going to continue to focus on creating operating leverage in the business. And in that scenario, by definition, we need to grow EBITDA faster than service revenue. And while I'm not providing guidance for '27, that's going to be our commitment to the business and what we'll continue to do. And some of the tools we'll use, as Jim described, it could be AI, it could be as we bring on more volume, we can leverage the yards.

There's a lot of levers that we'll continue to focus on, but that is our commitment to your question is we're going to create operating leverage within the P&L for the business.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Krista Friesen with CIBC.

Krista Friesen: I was just wondering if you can give us a little bit more color on the kind of the operating environment and performance for BigIron, just given where we're at in the ag equipment cycle and how you're thinking about that over the next couple of quarters here, what you're expecting?

James Kessler: Yes. Look, I'll start, and I'll pass it to Eric or Sameer to talk about the macro environment for the ag sector. But right now, we're head down focused on the integration of the 2 companies together, how do we add a lot of the things that Ritchie does that a founder-led company can't do when you think about transportation, finance and then a bunch of other attachments, which helps with take rate as we go forward. So right now, we're really head down focused on it, especially as the farming season is under the way. So we're really integration and how do we make sure we get the foundation built as we head into '27.

And with that, I'll pass it over to Eric, if he has any other macro comments.

Eric Guerin: Jim, I think you summed it up. I don't have any additional comments.

Krista Friesen: Okay. Perfect. And maybe just a follow-up for me on capital allocation. I mean, this quarter, pretty active on the buyback, dividend increase and an acquisition as well. Should we be expecting that kind of going forward, assuming your leverage kind of stays within your target range that we could see you kind of doing acquisitions and buying back shares at the same time?

Eric Guerin: Yes. I think we'll continue to evaluate it. As you know, we have a $500 million authorization in place. We used $150 million of it in the second quarter. So we do have that opportunity as we go through the remainder of the year. We'll also look at M&A opportunities as well. So I think what you've seen is probably what you'll see on a go-forward basis.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Steven Hansen with Raymond James.

Steven Hansen: Yes. This is just a general broad question on the Australian market. I'm just curious how pleased you've been with your investments there over the past 18 months or so. You've obviously bought Smith Broughton. You've been ramping the Suncorp contract. Is that a market that you'd sort of anticipate on scaling up further if the right opportunity came along? I'm just trying to get a sense for your thought on returns in that market and the broader opportunity that exists from a GTV standpoint.

James Kessler: Yes. No, great question. Look, we love the Australian market for what we're doing. We think we have a lot of room for organic growth as we think about the future. I keep pushing the team, I'm ready for a carrier #2 to get the win. So we're really focused. We feel really good all the sectors that we deal with in Australia.

Operator: We have reached the end of our Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to RB Global CEO, Jim Kessler, for closing remarks.

James Kessler: To close, I want to thank our teams across RB Global for delivering another quarter of solid execution and strong financial performance. The consistency of our results reflects the strength of our platform, the commitment of our people and the value we continue to create for customers and partners around the world. As we move through the second half of the year, we are focused on executing against a clear set of priorities, created more value for our partners, improving operating leverage and invested in the products, technology and capabilities that we believe will drive durable share gains and long-term profitable growth. We appreciate your interest in RB Global and look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter.

Thank you so much.

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

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