Auction Technology maintains guidance despite earnings fall

Auction Technology Group reported 6% growth in first-half revenue on Thursday, to $86m (£67.81m), driven by strong growth in value-added services and contributions from ‘EstateSales’.

The FTSE 250 company said adjusted EBITDA, however, narrowed by 6% to $35.7m, impacted by changes in the revenue mix and cost phasing.

Despite challenges such as a 17% decrease in gross merchandise value (GMV), ATG was optimistic, maintaining its full-year outlook for group revenue to range between $175m and $180m, with a midpoint growth rate of 7%, driven by strategic initiatives like atgXL, atgShip, and atgPay.

The firm anticipated improving organic revenue growth in the second half, supported by momentum on the Proxibid marketplace and cost phasing.

Its full-year adjusted EBITDA margin guidance remained at 46%.

ATG said it was focussed on leveraging its strengths to sustain growth amidst market challenges.

“ATG is executing against the investments we are making and where we've invested, we are growing,” said chief executive officer John-Paul Savant.

“Our focus in the 2022 and 2023 financial years was upgrading the online auction user experience through the rollout and growth of value-added services, and as outlined in December, in 2024 we are now focused on initiatives that drive GMV.

“We launched atgXL, our new cross-listing offering, that further differentiates our proposition for auctioneers and bidders and enhances our network effect.”

Savant said that since the launch of the new products, the firm had been “very pleased” with the response from auctioneers, as well as trends in bidder activity and the differentiation it gave its white label over the competitors.

“This differentiation hinges on an auctioneer's ability to run a white label whilst simultaneously cross-listing onto multiple ATG marketplaces, all from a single work flow, thus lowering operating costs and giving the auctioneer greater exposure to bidders for minimal effort.

“The strong momentum that we are seeing from our strategic programmes, as well as the improved trajectory in Proxibid, gives us confidence in revenue acceleration in the second half of 2024.”

At 0841 BST, shares in Auction Technology Group were up 11.99% at 551p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.