KAR Global announces rebrand under the name Openlane; company swings to Q1 profit

Wholesale auctions provider KAR Global said Tuesday it will rebrand as Openlane, a move it described as a reflection of its ongoing shift to becoming a more digital-focused marketplace company.

KAR Global, which acquired the online auction platform Openlane in 2011, will anchor the next era of the company on that name, CEO Peter Kelly said in a news release. Kelly was Openlane's CEO at the time of its acquisition.

The corporate name will change to Openlane Inc. on May 15. The rebranded company will keep trading under the ticker symbol "KAR" on the New York Stock Exchange, the news release said.

In the last decade, the company has executed a wider shift to offering digital marketplaces for wholesale vehicle buying and selling. It chose to take that a step further in May 2022 when it completed its divestiture of the large physical auction network ADESA U.S. to Carvana Co.

"Over the past decade, we've built and acquired some of the leading digital platforms in our industry," Kelly said in a statement. "Combining the best features and functionality from this technology and unifying our supporting operations will help us create the fastest, easiest and most active digital marketplace available."

The Openlane brand will serve as "both the parent company brand and the go-to-market brand" for the company's digital marketplaces in the U.S., Canada and Europe, the news release said. KAR Global said the first marketplace branded as such will launch in Canada, with the company combining ADESA Canada and TradeRev, its existing platforms there, in June.

In the U.S., KAR Global will continue rolling out its new live auction format, which was established in 2022 when the company integrated its dealer-to-dealer BacklotCars unit with Carwave, another of its online auction sites. Once that is completed, it "will focus on integrating its US dealer-to-dealer and off-lease platforms into a new, combined marketplace" branded as Openlane, the news release said.

KAR Global also said it has completed a consolidation of its ADESA Europe, ADESA U.K. and GWListe dealer-to-dealer platforms into one marketplace. The unit is also expected to adopt the Openlane brand, the company said.

The brand announcement does not impact AFC, KAR Global's financing unit, the company said.

As part of the rebrand, the company launched a new website, corporate.openlane.com, and debuted a new logo.

Q1 earnings

In addition to the rebrand announcement, KAR Global released its first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, reporting net income of $12.7 million, up from a loss of $300,000 in the year-earlier period; and revenue of $420.6 million, up 14 percent.

Last year’s first-quarter $300,000 loss figure is factoring in a $8.1 million pretax gain from the company’s discontinued operations pertaining to ADESA U.S. KAR Global lists ADESA U.S. as discontinued operations on its financial statement. KAR’s loss from continuing operations in first-quarter 2022 was $8.4 million.

Q1 revenue from continuing operations: $420.6 million, up 14 percent from the year-earlier period.

Q1 net income from continuing operations: $12.7 million, compared with a loss of $8.4 million a year earlier.

Q1 net income: $12.7 million, compared with a loss of $300,000 a year earlier.

Q1 total vehicle sales: 330,000 total vehicles, down 6 percent.