CARMEL, Ind. -

KAR Auction Services kicked off the year by notching nearly a 5-percent uptick in revenue during the first quarter and increasing its adjusted EBITDA by approximately 6 percent, the company said late Monday afternoon.

KAR pulled in adjusted EBITDA of $134.9 million in the first quarter that ended March 31, compared to $127.3 million in the year-ago period. Revenues reached $506.9 million, versus $484.7 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2011.

KAR’s net income declined from $39.8 million in the year-ago to $26.0 million in the recently completed quarter. The adjusted net income per share was $0.31, versus $0.41 a year earlier.

“The decrease in net income for the first quarter of 2012 was due primarily to the company incurring an effective tax rate of 41.4 percent as compared with an effective tax rate of 2.5 percent in the first quarter of 2011, as the effective tax rate in the first quarter of 2011 benefitted from the reversal of $14.4 million in tax reserves,” officials explained.

Editor’s Note: Stay tuned to www.autoremarketing.com as we feature a more in-depth look at KAR’s first-quarter performance in Wednesday’s Auto Remarketing Today e-newsletter.