Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers officially opens new facility in Saskatoon.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE and TSX: RBA), the world's largest auctioneer of agricultural and industrial equipment, held its official grand opening auction recently at its new permanent auction site in Saskatoon, SK. Saskatoon Mayor Don Atchison and Rural Municipality (RM) of Corman Park Reeve Ed Hobday joined Ritchie Bros. personnel in a ribbon cutting ceremony to start the auction.

Hundreds of buyers from around the world purchased over $8 million worth of agricultural equipment at the unreserved auction. More than 1,700 registered bidders participated in the auction both in-person and online from seven countries, including 16 American states and nine Canadian provinces. Bidders registered for the auction from as far away as Australia, the UAE, the UK, Italy and Mexico.

At the grand opening ceremony, RM of Corman Park Reeve Ed Hobday said that the new Ritchie Bros. facility is a "first-class example" of an opportunity to help grow the local economy: "For Ritchie Bros. to select the Saskatoon region for their first major initiative into a permanent site for agricultural auctions is really welcome and appreciated not only in terms of the service it provides to the agricultural community, but even more importantly is as it relates to the economic activity that is associated with having a permanent site here."

Mayor Don Atchison told the crowd that it was truly an exciting day: "The fact that Ritchie Bros. has invested in our community speaks volumes for all of us ... They had the vision and the dream and for the fact that they came forward and made this major investment in our community, we want to thank them ever so much."

"This new Saskatoon site is a great investment for our company," said Kevin Tink, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers vice-president. "It's going to be a major hub for us for our agricultural auction division and we can see from the strength of our auction results today that our customers--both buyers and sellers--are taking advantage of our local presence here in Saskatoon."

Over 200 of the registered bidders used the company's real-time bidding service, rbauctionBid-Live, which allows people to participate in the auction live and in real-time over the Internet. Buyers made online purchases of more than $1 million during the auction, and were winning bidder or runner-up bidder on 23 per cent of lots available on the Internet.

The company's new 60-acre site is one of 35 auction sites that the Canadian-based company has around the world.

Currently on the upcoming Ritchie Bros. auction calendar, there are more than 38 unreserved industrial auctions and over 10 unreserved agricultural auctions. Details on all upcoming Ritchie Bros. auctions are available on www.rbauction.com.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

RELATED ARTICLE: About Ritchie Bros.

Ritchie Bros. is the world's largest auctioneer of industrial equipment, operating through over 110 locations in more than 25 countries around the world. The company sells, through unreserved public auctions, a broad range of used and unused industrial assets, including equipment, trucks and other assets utilized in the construction, transportation, material handling, mining, forestry, petroleum, marine, real estate and agricultural industries. The company maintains a Web site 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 period.