CARMEL, Ind. -

KAR Auction Services’ Jim Hallett said he’s not “wishing his life away,” but the chief executive officer told Wednesday’s quarterly conference call participants that he’s looking forward to the conclusion of 2012, a span he called one of the “toughest years we’ve seen in our industry.”

After finishing the third quarter that included preparations and preliminary recovery from Superstorm Sandy, Hallett said, “I’m very pleased to see the end of 2012 coming about here. I’m excited about 2013. I’m excited about the business. This is a great business. We’re ideally positioned as we go forward. The outlook is very positive.”

Hallett acknowledged that while KAR as a whole fell short of performance expectations — figures Auto Remarketing reported here — he was pleased with how the company produced strong gross profit and exceptional free cash flow during the third quarter.

Among some of the other third-quarter highlights Hallett mentioned:

—ADESA volume climbing 14 percent year-over-year, mainly attributed to OPENLANE business now fully in the pipeline.

—Volume at Insurance Auto Auctions increasing 5 percent and the division landing contract work with an undisclosed provider management hopes pushes that level even higher during future quarters.

—Revenue per third-quarter loan transaction at Automotive Finance Corp. moving up to $161, the highest level seen this year.

Impact from Superstorm Sandy

With close to two dozen operations along the Eastern Seaboard, Superstorm Sandy left an impact on KAR that Hallett said is still being calculated.

“The truth of the matter is, we don’t quite fully understand the magnitude of how the storm has impacted us at this point in time since it’s just a little over a week old,” Hallett said during Wednesday’s call.

Hallett indicated operations in Sandy’s path experienced work delays, reduced consignment volume and weaker attendance.

“Dealers just weren’t able to get to the sales,” Hallett said.

At ADESA operations especially in New Jersey and on Long Island in New York, the company used resources to move vehicles to higher ground in advance of the storm. Facilities lost both electricity and Web access for a time, according to Hallett.

He said all of the costs from the necessary measures are going to affect the company’s fourth-quarter financial performance, but he is upbeat about what opportunities Sandy’s aftermath might present KAR going into 2013.

“There’s going to be demand for used cars to replace all of these vehicles that have been lost in the storm,” Hallett said.

“It’s going to provide us an opportunity not only to sell more used cars, but prices will likely increase, and we’ll probably need to move cars in from other regions,” he continued while adding that element could present OPENLANE and KAR’s transportation provider, CarsArrive, with enhanced business opportunities.

A Wall Street analyst asked Hallett to project where used-vehicle prices might go as a result of Sandy. He responded by citing the same analysis Auto Remarketing shared from NADA Used Car Guide earlier this week in a story available here.

“We don’t know the actual numbers, but we know this was an extremely heavily populated area that we’re dealing with,” Hallett said. “We expect that there is going to be a high number of vehicles that are going to need to be replaced.

“When you have that kind of demand, although it could be short term, it is going to drive used-car prices in those markets. We’ll probably see an affect prices in other markets as well because they’re going to have to reach further to get vehicles to fill the void that’s been created,” he continued.