LONDON, UK: Auction Technology Group (LON: ATG), operator of world- leading marketplaces for curated online auctions, announced the acquisition of Vintage Software LLC, trading as estatesales.net (ESN), a leading US estate sales listing site.
Based in Jackson, Missouri, estatesales.net (ESN) provides a platform to facilitate estate sales across the US. Both corporate estate sale companies as well as private customers use ESN to advertise online the sale of millions of unique second-hand items sourced from a range of events including private home estate sales and business liquidations.
Approximately 58% of revenue is derived from ESN’s over four thousand monthly listing subscribers, with the remaining 42% from other fees, which predominantly includes traditional pay per listing fees.
The website attracts over three million monthly site visitors, as well as over one million email subscribers, who are primarily buyers looking to discover unique items for sale at local estate sale events.
Three quarters of all listings relate to in-person sales, with the remaining predominantly sold through third-party online auction sites.
ESN also has a nascent marketplace capability with over 125,000 items sold in 2022 directly through the site. ESN was founded by the McQuade family and launched under its current name in 2002. Today, the company is run by Micky McQuade, and prior to the Acquisition was wholly owned by the McQuade family.
The acquisition purchase price is $40 million with an initial cash payment of $30 million plus deferred cash consideration of $10 million payable after twelve months.
A total of up to $2 million employee retention bonus will also be payable after 12 months to certain employees of ESN. The acquisition will be funded from the Group’s available cash balance and existing debt facilities.
For the year ended 31 December 2022, ESN unaudited revenue was $8.7 million, with an unaudited EBITDA of $4.7 million and unaudited gross assets of $1.3 million. Revenue has grown at a c.9% CAGR since 2019. The Board expects the acquisition to be accretive to the Group’s adjusted earnings and adjusted EBITDA in the current financial year.
Auction Technology Group also confirms its full year guidance provided at the FY 22 Results in December 2022, before the impact of today’s announcement.
John-Paul Savant, Chief Executive Officer of Auction Technology Group plc, said: “As a leading US estate sale listing site, estatesales.net is a natural fit for ATG as we unlock further areas of value within the secondary goods market and facilitate another part of the circular economy. We are excited by the multiple growth opportunities ahead, including enabling more sellers of unique and specialised secondary items to cross-list across multiple marketplaces and gain access to a larger pool of bidders and buyers, as well as the opportunity to develop ESN into the leading online estate sales platform in the US. We look forward to welcoming Micky and the estatesales.net team into ATG.”
