KAR Auction Services might not nearly be finished acquiring independent auctions, with chief executive officer Jim Hallett saying there are “five to 10 really good strong independents that we would be very interested in acquiring if the opportunity presented itself.”

Back in March, KAR announced that business unit ADESA expanded its presence in Pennsylvania with the acquisition of Pittsburgh Auto Auction in New Stanton, Pa., joining two other ADESA auctions in the region — ADESA Pittsburgh and ADESA PA.

In light of that move, Hallett responded to inquiries from investment analysts after the company reported its Q1 performance about whether more acquisitions are in the company’s future.

“First of all I would say to you that in the pipeline, we feel there’s a number of opportunities, a number of good opportunities,” Hallett said. “There are some very good independents out there. And I’ve always kind of sized it that there’s probably five to 10 really good strong independents that we would be very interested in acquiring if the opportunity presented itself. We know that we can buy these auctions at attractive multiples.

“And I can’t promise you that we’ll have a number of them done before the end of the year. But I can promise you that we’re working on a number of them. And at some point in time we would expect that we’ll get some of these over the line,” he went on to say.

Acquisitions aren’t the only growth avenue KAR is using to expand ADESA’s footprint. On April 9, the company highlighted the development of ADESA Chicago, which will be located in Hoffman Estates, Ill., near I-90. While the auction isn’t expected to open in spring 2016, Hallett touched on the expectations KAR already has for this facility.

“Well, you know, I'm a pretty optimistic guy, but I would say, first of all let's talk about greenfields in general,” he said. “In general, we would tell you that starting a greenfield site usually takes 12 to 24 months to become cash flow positive. And our recent experience in Las Vegas, which was the last greenfield we’d done, was basically cash flow positive in a year.

“I have some very high expectations for Chicago, being the size of the market that it is,” Hallett continued. “And not only the size of the market, but being the location in that Chicago market. Matter of fact, in that location, our major competitor is quite a significant difference in terms of miles to the south. So we think we've really got a prime location there.

“So without spitting out any specific numbers, the third-largest market, we’re well-positioned there with a great location. We know there's a huge buyer network out of that market. I would expect that we would see very strong results in the first 12 months, comparatively speaking, to a greenfield,” he went on to say.