Deep-Junk-Rated Carvana Gets $4.5 Billion from New Investors, after Shares Collapsed by 79%, Hoping the World Hasn’t Run out of Greater Fools Yet

The cash-burn machine needs new fuel.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

Carvana, which sells used cars online, is rated deep-junk, and has been losing a ton of money every year, even in the hottest used-car market ever, and whose shares collapsed by 79% from the peak in August last year, now needs to extract more cash from investors to fuel its cash-burn machine and to pay for the $2.2 billion acquisition of Adesa.

Adesa runs wholesale auto auctions and provides related services through brick-and-mortar venues around the US and Canada. Its customers include the biggest used-car dealers that buy and sell at these auctions, and automakers that sell their rental program cars at these auctions.

The fact that a large used-car dealer buys an auto auction house that caters to other used-car dealers and automakers is a problem. Those other used-car dealers compete with Carvana, and they can buy their cars at other auctions. And the automakers can sell their program cars at other auctions. And now there are already rumors that they’re thinking about severing their relationship with Adesa following the purchase by Carvana. This would be a new nightmare for Carvana, after spending $2.2 billion on that deal.

So Carvana needs $2.2 billion to fund the Adesa purchase, and it needs tons of money to fund its cash-burn machine. And now we know how and how much it’s going to raise.

Carvana [CVNA] is offering new securities last week and this week, that total $4.5 billion, with something for everyone:

A preferred stock offering of $1 billion, in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers. This was announced on April 20.

A common stock offering of $1.25 billion, first announced last week. Today, it disclosed that it priced the 15.625 million shares at $80, for proceeds of $1.225 billion after underwriter discounts but before expenses. Priced at $80, the offering reflects a 79% collapse from the peak in August last year:

A junk-bond offering of $2.275 billion, whose final details were announced today, of senior unsecured notes maturing in 2030. Moody’s today rated the bonds Caa2, which is deep junk and only two notches above C, which designates default on Moody’s scale (my cheat sheet for corporate credit ratings by ratings agency).

Carvana already had $5.8 billion in debt at the end of last year, composed of $3.6 billion in long-term debt and $2.2 billion in short-term debt. That is a lot of leverage already. Now it is adding to it.

Moody’s today downgraded Carvana’s overall corporate credit rating by one notch to Caa1, which is three notches above Moody’s designation for default. Moody’s explains:

“The downgrade reflects Carvana’s very weak credit metrics, persistent lack of profitability and negative free cash flow generation which we expect to continue as the company embarks on building out, adequately staffing and ramping up acquired sites and existing locations to where they are cash flow positive on a sustained basis.

“The downgrade also reflects governance considerations particularly Carvana’s financial policies which support its external floor plan facilities going current despite the expectation for significant negative free cash flow as well as its decision to finance the ADESA acquisition partially with debt despite its very high leverage.

“Carvana is acquiring the assets of ADESA Inc which includes 56 properties on which it will build its own Inspection and Refurbishment Centers (IRC) as well as leverage its existing sites and logistics.

“The stable outlook recognizes Carvana’s lack of near dated debt maturities and its historic ability to access the public debt and equity markets to support its cash deficits.”

What Moody’s is saying is that despite large leverage, persistent losses, and persistent negative cashflows, Carvana has been able to bamboozle public markets into forking over more money to keep it afloat, and that ability to extract money from new investors to pay off existing investors is why the outlook is “stable” after today’s downgrade.

For Carvana’s shareholders, tighter financial conditions – which is what the Fed attempts to accomplish by rate hikes and QT – pose a massive risk.

Tighter financial conditions will make investors more prudent and careful, and in the future will make funding more difficult and expensive to get for Carvana. But it will need new funding to service existing investors and fuel its cash-burn machine.

Carvana had $5.8 billion in debts, and after the junk-bond offering will have more debt, and those debt holders have rights, and if they don’t get paid, it could trigger a debt restructuring that leaves stockholders out in the cold.

But for now, no problem: Investors are still chasing yield and they’re still buying the dips, and they’re still smelling an opportunity to sell those shares to the greater fool, hoping that the world hasn’t run out of greater fools yet.

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  88 comments for “Deep-Junk-Rated Carvana Gets $4.5 Billion from New Investors, after Shares Collapsed by 79%, Hoping the World Hasn’t Run out of Greater Fools Yet

  1. JGarbo says:

    Your last paragraph sums up my “philosophy”. I buy as a trend emerges, ride it till it falters, then cash out at 5-6% profit and hand over to the next genius. And there’s a whole horde of geniuses out there.

    • Harrold says:

      I do the exact opposite. I buy old, established companies that are profitable enough to pay 4-6% dividends for decades. Then I sleep well at night, knowing those divs will pay my bills.

      I am an investor. You are a speculator. Nothing wrong with that. Did it for a long time, but not when the fed was raising rates and bursting bubbles all over the world. Good luck to you!

      • c1ue says:

        4-6% is great in a 2% inflation environment.
        8.5% inflation, not so much.

        • Morty Mc Mort says:

          There are times of High Risk
          Significant declines..
          Let’s Project a 38% Market Crash..
          If an investor preserved thier Capital and lost 0 Dollars..
          That would be a major gain..
          This is just an observation
          No Innocent Investors or Speculators were injured or killed during the making of this Observation.

        • joedidee says:

          I had to agree with the WARREN
          if you can’t buy at least 51%(ie control)
          you are just another speculator

        • NBay says:

          I still like Buffet’s “The First Billion is The Hardest” bit of financial wisdom better, although that 51% remark is a good second.

      • sunny129 says:

        Harrold

        ‘I buy old, established companies that are profitable enough to pay 4-6% dividends for decades’

        Sorry

        Stocks remain overvalued with mindless bidding. Even the so called’ established Cos’ have been bid up since ’09! No one knows the true value, without the price discovery, which was actively suppresed by Fed after GFC!

        When the earnings fall, so do the dividends, along with decline in the value of those Cos. I have seen it, done and lived to tell about that! So is $ invest averaging in a secular (declining) Bear mkt!
        Read the mkt history of over 200 yrs! ( Been in the mkt since ’82)

    • Morty Mc Mort says:

      You make one error.
      There are Two Businesses.
      One – Build a “Zowie” model “Car Vending” or Disruptor tech or whatever…
      It will burn burn burn money.. because it is “Taking over and Transforming the Market” (Don’t ‘Cha Know).
      Two – Top Execs and Insiders and all the Wall Street “Eco System” makes Bank.. Inside info, Lead Position (In and Out)
      Fees, Fees Fees.. Jobs for the Connected ones..
      Fees…
      The Wall Street/market insider Eco System could care less about the business decisions.. so long as they support the “Massive Growth” Story..
      Dump everything on the retail suckers.. like sheep.. shear regularly, they re-grow for the next “Shearing”
      Inside Game gets richer and richer…

      • Leo1992 says:

        GUYS, PLEASE STAY SAFE AND DON’T SHORT THIS MARKET BECAUSE:
        1. Insolvent unicorns can still raise money because there is just too much liquidity in system promoting speculation.
        2. Reverse Repos are tying up $1.8 trillion of liquidity and even Fed reducing valance sheet by $100 Billion a month will actually impact liquidity only after 18 months!
        3. Actual fed Rate is still between 0.25 and 0.5%, rest is all Jawboning and can vanish without a word.
        4. While you feel that value of Dollar is going down in straight line denying the website’s dictum, Fed can still manipulate the stock and bond markets and these will not go to heck in a straight line.
        5. Shorts are very expensive now and they are always time bound. These markets can remain unreasonable longer than your shorts can remain solvent.

        • SoCalBeachDude says:

          The ONLY interest rate that really matters a hoot is the yield (interest rate) on 10-year US Treasuries.

        • Michael Auten says:

          You are absolutely right, Sir. It took SP500 only 4 days from March 15, 2022 to March 18,2022 to go from 4100 to 4600. And that’s 5 trillion increase in market capitalization in just four days.

          Big scam it is.

          However, if retails shorts a little like 1000 per person, it makes a great impact. They can never get squeezed and I assume the “promoter” who has cornered the market pays interest on that 1000.

          How long Elon can afford to pay interest on the cash he gave to short sellers like Bill Gates. And Bill will never be squeezed for half a billion.

        • sunny129 says:

          Leo 1992

          yeh, I am actively shorting ( no naked or covered shorting)
          No excuses! B/c the secular BEAR mkt since late February!

          There are enough tools there including Option trading (PUTS) and leveraged inverse Etfs. All doing what they are expected both on Last Friday and today! NOT for every body. They saved me during GFC!

          This a pure TRADERS’ mkt and for investors. This mkt has long way to go towards reversion to the mean and then some down. Of course there will be powerful bounces along the way, which makes puts value a bit cheaper!
          Higher they go, harder they fall!

  2. Auld Kodjer says:

    Its like a B grade movie: The Kleptocracy Versus The Idiocracy

    • NBay says:

      Carvana says there are 33 vending machines with the tallest (9 stories) in Tempe AZ. An unbelievably insane use of planetary resources.

      • NBay says:

        Contrast that marketing gimmick with Orange Julius….things have really changed….and for the worst…..free OPM.
        The drink was real tasty and refreshing, too.

    • 91B20 1stCav (AUS) says:

      AK- where-oh-where is TOHO Studios when we really need them (or Gojira, for that matter)???

      may we all find a better day.

  3. SpencerG says:

    Doesn’t anybody do “Due Diligence” any more?

    Shouldn’t Carvana (or its investment bank) have gone to the other car dealers (and car manufacturers) to ask if they would stop doing business with Adesa if Carvana bought them out?

    • doug says:

      Well, yes, if they cared. It is OPM, so no big deal.

    • Wolf Richter says:

      SpencerG,

      The Adesa deal was hyped as a huge benefit for Carvana because it would get the brick-and-mortar locations of Adesa where it could process and prep its vehicles, and it would get access to the Adesa back office for title work, which Carvana has trouble with. And that kind of Wall Street hype overpowers everything.

      Acquisitions are always great, according to Wall Street banks because they make a huge amount in fees from it, and from funding it, as you can see. Due diligence for Wall Street is limited to the sole question: “How much money can we make off the deal.”

      And Carvana doesn’t care about profits. So it doesn’t matter to them. But things change.

      • 91B20 1stCav (AUS) says:

        (pretty sure you’ve said similar, and much earlier, already, Wolf) …in acquiring Adesa, it seems to me that the bright sparks who came up with the Carvana idea didn’t really know or respect that much about the market they were breaking into in the first place…

        may we all find a better day.

    • khowdung flunghi says:

      You’ve created a wonderfully descriptive term – “do-do diligence” – when the participants are full of it…

  4. Bubbles&Bottles says:

    It seems Lagarde is doing well her job. lol

    “Santander Delivers Earnings Beat Fired by Rates, Currencies

    Spanish bank’s earnings buoyed by performance in Europe”

    “Money talks, bs walks”

  5. Kevin F. says:

    Interesting that carvana tried to be the “DIFFERENT” car seller, and now they are going backwards and buying the conventional part of the business. The problem is, they over paid for ADESA by a billion dollars. ADESA has over 800 million on the books listed as goodwill. Goodwill is an asset that is worthless to carvana and actually a concept that the garcia financial crime circle knows nothing about.

  6. Aussie Andy says:

    Lotta money for a website

  7. Will V says:

    My question is will the “market” see this cash infusion via debt and stock as a positive as it always has under the “Amazon doctrine” that the company will someday make a “profit” and the negative cash flow (cash burn) is allowing the company to “grow”? In reality agree this is a “zombie” that wouldn’t exist without “cheap money with no consequences” that still won’t go away when what we really need is companies that innovate and manufacture. The future appears bleak…..

    • Wolf Richter says:

      Will V,

      Amazon never really made much money in retail. It made HUGE amounts of money with AWS, its cloud services company. AWS could be a big standalone tech company. Carvana is just doing retail, competing with the biggest and the best out there, and everyone is selling used cars online, and it doesn’t have any kind of tech to sell.

    • Wolf Richter says:

      Will V,

      At the moment at least, the market today is doing thumbs down. This morning, CNVA is down 11%.

  8. historicus says:

    This rings in my ear…

    Fed Gov Fisher in the PBS documentary “The Power of the Federal Reserve” (can be seen on the PBS website)

    said we pushed down long rates to FORCE (his word) the investor to take more risk.

    I ask, IS THIS THEIR DUTY, is this what the Fed is there for?

    This alters risk/ return ratios and PEs from historical norms…..this is strong handed and out of the scope of what the Fed’s duties are. They should stick to “stable prices” and MODERATE long term interest rates, ie not all time IMMODERATE lows that FORCE people to climb farther and farther out the limb. “Agency creep” for the quasi agency, not unlike an EPA or CDC.

    In a nation that boasts of a system based on “checks and balances”, who checks the Fed? Certainly not Sherrod Brown and the Senate Banking committee per their inane questions at the last hearing.

    • Dan Romig says:

      historicus,

      “PEs from historical norms …” made me look up Waste Management. This is the stock that I use as a benchmark for everything being out of wack.

      Yes, it is a well run company in a business that will never go out of style. They pick up garbage. When I saw the PE ratio slipped down to 36.35, I thought that’s steady, but not at the 40 to 1 it has been.

      Ah, then I glanced up at share price. At close 25 April = $155.96. Pre-Market 08:23 Am EDT =$164.25 (+ 5.32%)

      Maybe the sales people did pick up that account at 38 degrees, 53 minutes, 34 seconds N by 77 degrees, 2 minutes, 45 seconds W???

      By the way, two of my customers in the ticket business owned and operated mortuaries. A business that will always be in demand, eh?

      • historicus says:

        December 10, 2021

        “Waste Management also revealed to have received authorization from its Board of Directors to repurchase up to $1.5 billion of the company’s common stock.”

        • Dan Romig says:

          Interesting twist on my opinion now. Thank you historicus.

          I have not owned WM for quite a few years, but perhaps I cashed out a bit early when I let go of it.

          Like Wolf and many of the commenters, I am not a fan of stock buy backs.

        • historicus says:

          agreed

        • NBay says:

          WM was at $26 back in ’07 when I was playing around with becoming an “investor”. I was soon completely cured of that bad habit. I am a professional downsizer now, back to what I have been most all my life.

          Biology training….still ongoing.

    • Maximus Minimus says:

      The central bankers have been given green light to save the finance and economy from implosion. Nobody cares about the mandates, the politicos and definitely not the dumb public.

      • sunny129 says:

        Maximus Minimus

        Then why did Dot com and housing bust (GFC) happened?

        Remember this is the same gang who brought us, TWO boom-bust cycles in this century. They created the current largest ‘Everything Bubble’ to cover up all the problems, disclosed by previous busts. Instead fixing them, they just created CREDIT frenzy, as a cure!?

        Now they are trapped. Not just the Fed and all the CBers allover the world, unlike any time before in human history. All the DEBTS on record!

        No Country in human history has prospered by spending debt on debt!

  9. Zark Muckerberg says:

    Seem like a dumb purchase. I do want Carvana to succeed because like Tesla, they take away the shenanigans from dealing with car salesmen.

    • Dan Romig says:

      Z M,

      On the other hand, when I was buying my M4 at Penske’s dealership two years ago, the walls had many beautiful large framed photos of the BMW’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan race cars all over to highlight BMW’s racing heritage.

      The man who was the race engineer for these cars was the best man at my wedding. Roger Penske is also a racing man of great achievement. My only disappointment was that I could not write my check to Roger himself.

      Ain’t anything like that experience with Carvana gonna happen.

      • phleep says:

        At lower rungs of the market, fake fellowship (more fake than your hallowed “real” proximity experience) endlessly replicated at no cost is the business model. All Carvana needs to do is put som,e pop person on a screen or tweet feed. That’s how people like the Kardashians make big bank: small margins per sucker but lots of suckers. Taht’s one supply P.T. Barnum observed is steady. And every generation has to learn all over again. No technology transmits anti-suckerism efficently (yet). Plenty transmit suckerism.
        Suckers have sought proximity since at least the great age of religious tourism (jerusalem, Mecca, Lourdes, etc.).

        • 91B20 1stCav (AUS) says:

          phleep-go long suckers, then?

          Dan R.-Roger P. definitely one of the greats for motorheads, or businessheads (remember seeing him mucking in and working on the late Mark Donohue’s Camaro at the Crows’ Landing TransAm back in the ’60’s when i was but a young Gurney fan…), going from strength to strength over the decades before and since…

          may we all find a better day.

        • NBay says:

          TransAm….roadracing dragsters…..great stuff….I am a McLaren Faithful to this day…they will be back, in F-1….saw Lewis chasing Kimi up on the hillside at Spa ’07 (I was on dirt hillside just before Bus Stop chicane, using Kangaroo device and big screen)….my ONLY ocean crossing trip as an adult, but a great 3 (only) days and worth the money…..(unless I can count BC ferries).

        • NBay says:

          I meant CanAm. Got carried away there…memories.

        • 91B20 1stCav (AUS) says:

          NBay-fun days at brain-scale ingenuity/folly, fersure, before the REALLY BIG money and computing power arrived (…and what are those weird-looking vehicles doing on my grassy racetrack???).

          may we all find a better day.

    • Digger Dave says:

      No thanks. Companies like this only exist because there is (was???) so much free money floating around. So they insert themselves into a market, make things so much more expensive for everyone in that market and help contribute healthily to a segment where working class people are sucker punched by the fact that they need a car to survive. Carvana and their ilk can’t go bankrupt soon enough.

    • Wolf Richter says:

      “…they take away the shenanigans from dealing with car salesmen”

      CarMax has done that for decades. It pioneered it in a big way, and dealers, including me back then, pooh-poohed this strategy. We said it would never work. But it did.

      There is no haggling, neither on the trade (they give you a price at which they will buy the car from you, and you don’t even have to buy anything from them) nor on the sale. I’ve sold two cars to CarMax outright over the past 20 years, including my still-under-warranty BMW i5 with a V-8 and sport package. They paid top dollars and paid on the spot.

      The used-vehicle branches of Enterprise and other rental fleets are also no-haggling.

      • Swamp Creature says:

        I bought my 2000 Toyota Corolla from the used car branch of Enterprise in 2001, and still have the car and it’s my main form of transportation. Got a good deal for a change.

        • Flea says:

          Saw a Corolla with virus sticker attached read Corolla virus

        • Anthony A. says:

          Keep your eyes open when buying from Enterprise. In January 2020, I looked at a low mileage 2020 Ford SUV at Enterprise as it was what I was looking for. They had it priced above market by a couple of grand, but it looked clean and had ~18K miles on it.

          Their house brand “carfax” showed no accidents.

          When I closely inspected the car, I noticed the driver’s side front fender/hood mating seam was actually closed tight and at the other side of the hood, the fender spacing was wider than what one would expect to be normal. When I peeked under the driver fender well, the inner fender lining was sliced and somewhat shredded. So much for “no accidents”.

          Opening the hood revealed a slightly bent radiator housing support and some missing fasteners. All in all, pretty shoddy workmanship for the shop that fixed the collision. Salesman didn’t have much to say in defense and pleaded ignorance.

          I did not buy the car. Due diligence is key in buying used cars, from no matter who is selling them.

      • SoCalBeachDude says:

        There is already plenty of room for haggling in the used car markets, and those that don’t haggle will see lost sales and deals. The electric 5-Series, which will likely be called an i5, was first confirmed in 2020. We should see it debut alongside the regular versions of the redesigned 5-Series in 2023. Expect the cars to reach dealerships as 2024 models. A Touring i5 will be introduced for 2024.

    • COWG says:

      “ they take away the shenanigans from dealing with car salesmen.”

      Z M,

      Let’s not paint all with a broad brush…

      I bought a new Tacoma last week… I was looking for a specific configuration with minimal tech… couldn’t order one due to dealer allocation in my area…

      I found one… in all of FL, GA and AL… one…Dropped an internet request and had a phone call in 5 minutes… the sales guy was knowledgeable, and during the discussion knew I had done my research… we agreed on a price below what I could have ordered one for ( if available)…

      Online minimal credit app, nearly instant approval, legal stuff texted over, all done in short order…

      Only problem, the truck was 200 miles away…

      The salesman used to live in my area and was off the next day… offered to bring the truck to me for $150 so his wife could visit and he could take her out for a very nice lunch…

      Showed up the next day with all title work done, tag on the car, paperwork in hand… 10 mins signed and out the door…

      Without a doubt my best car buying experience ever…

      The dealers have this stuff down to a science…

      But it was new, and not used, and I did have 3 days to reject it, if I had any problems…

      I know this probably not a typical experience, but my point was that some salesmen actually do bust their butt for the customer…

      • SoCalBeachDude says:

        Nice!

      • Anthony A. says:

        I like to hear good stories when buying a car because there are so many bad ones out there.

      • Zark Muckerberg says:

        cowg,

        That has ruined the rest of your lifetime’s expectation at a dealership from now on. You’ll forever be asking why can’t this car salesman be like that one guy who drove 200 miles for me?

        I have bought brand new and lease cars and every time, its a hassle from them trying to squeeze out more money. I just want to buy at the advertised price and leave.

  10. Xaver says:

    I don’t know why they bought Adesa. My best guess is that they were buying “sales growth” hoping to fool some to chase the stock or hoping for a short squeeze. It seems the stock is already fading after an initial bounce.

    More downside to come …

  11. Crush the Peasants! says:

    So you are at the vending machine. Should you get the Flamin Hot Limon Crunchy Cheetos or the Dodge Charger Hellcat? Can’t fail, eh?

  12. Winston says:

    A car maintenance content producer on YouTube with over a million subscribers showed a car bought by one of his clients from an internet based used car vendor, may have been Carvana. That vendor supposedly pays to fix anything found wrong with a vehicle after the sale which would make one think they would check them carefully before they are bought and sold. This car wasn’t very old at all, but all sorts of expensive to fix but not obvious things to an owner were found in need of repair using a scanner. The content producer said that that company could easily go bankrupt if this was the case with other cars they sold.

  13. Flea says:

    There.s tons of money in used cars profit of3-5 k per vechile depending on how bad they screw u on trade in but this business model is stupid

  14. COWG says:

    Lessee…

    You need more money to keep doing the very thing that you lose money doing…

    Sounds like a plan for success…

    I think the people running this are either crazy smart or pretty stupid…

    Do they not think that other users of ADESA will figure out that Carvana wants to cherry pick cars coming through the auction ensuring that only the dregs will be available for auction purchase…

    Without a fair opportunity , will other dealers even use ADESA, except for some bottom dwellers…

    I’ve seen dealers using QR codes on their tv ads to get people to sell their used cars to them… Which tells me the industry is trying to focus on a more decentralized method of acquiring used cars to sell…

    Or is it a plan to eventually dump the Carvana side and and focus on the auction side…

    If you can’t make money in what was the worlds greatest used car mania, you’ve got to be the worlds worst management team and board of directors…

    I can see them losing on both lines of business especially when, not if, they screw up the ADESA auction with the ADESA customers…

    • John H. says:

      COWG-

      “You need more money to keep doing the very thing that you lose money doin”

      Ominously familiar to Bernie Madoff’s MO.

    • El Katz says:

      Auction consignments can be limited to franchised dealer’s only when a manufacturer runs their cars through the lane. First pass (closed auction) goes to their dealers only. Anything left, becomes fair game or gets put on a car carrier and moved to a more favorable location for that particular product (i.e, convertibles in October in MN moved to Phoenix or Florida).

      Carvana may never even get a shot at the inventory and be satisfied with their fees and any recon/prep done on site.

      Also: Manufacturers run their own online “auction” sites via their DCS (dealer communication systems) where the prime stuff is usually scooped up before it ever goes to auction. Much cheaper for both the manufacturer and the franchised dealer (no auction fees for the manufacturer and lower transportation costs).

  15. phleep says:

    Loose money, helicoptered into the streets, still floats around in fools’ hands. It is being hoovered up. Flashy deals help.

    A few more big bad market days will focus attention.

  16. phleep says:

    At a certain point, after enough screwups, everything has to go VERY right. I see too many variables gone sideways here. But if one can find a few more starry-eyed investors, problem solved.

  17. Michael Auten says:

    Carvana Short-Squeeze is over, Newly issued shares will be used to help Short sellers cover their shares at-profit! The secondary offering is bound to succeed because short sellers have guaranteed to buy them.

    • phleep says:

      Reminds of the old days when Jay Gould would talk a railroad down, buy it cheap, fix a few things, talk it up, short it, talk it down, cash in, buy back in. Pump and dump and pump and dump and ….

  18. Island Teal says:

    Good article. Still amazed that there are “the willing buyers”at the other end of these financial transactions to hoover up the stonk offerings. Jeremy Irons would be proud 💸💸

  19. HollywoodDog says:

    Off topic, but while we’re discoursing about fluctuating equity valuations, where do readers think the S&P 500 will be come year’s end?

  20. Tim R says:

    If these guys are not printing money during this used car market then, well, maybe the 20% short interest unreasonably low.

  21. Minutes says:

    The Carvana in the Coal Mine for the Nasdaq.

  22. Yancey Ward says:

    Yeah- if Carvana ain’t making money in today’s used car market, they never will.

  23. unamused says:

    What? No stock buybacks? No space program? What kind of company is this?

    You’d think that tanking 79% would be enough to get CVNA an imploded stock listing. Spoiler alert!

  24. Tom S. says:

    Who’s funding the deal? Softbank?

    • Wolf Richter says:

      It’s institutions and people that are buying the $4.5 billion in junk bonds, preferred stock, and common stock issued during this fund-raising. I don’t think SoftBank will be a buyer there.

      • Stegelberg says:

        Thanks for a great service Wolf. Highly informative, and just made a decent buck shorting Carvana, so sendt you a donation as a token of appreciation.

        People like yourself, Matt Taibi and others are providing a great service to humanity, IMHO. We need you to keep calling out the decadent people running our economy.

  25. CreditGB says:

    My Dream world:

    Carvana is bought out by Wework, who in turn buys out HWIN and reopens the NJ Deli store. A newly formed holding company, Madoff Investments, rolls all operations into a pool of companies with Softbank funding the acquisitions of Nikola, Lordstown, Romeo Power, and Workhorse to corner the future markets in EVs and used cars.

    Goldman will handle a Madoff Investments (MIFU) IPO at $1000 per share.

    You in?

    • SoCalBeachDude says:

      Sounds almost as good as Elon’s plans for Twitter dumping advertising and going to a Dogecoin subscription model!!!

    • Lune says:

      Rookie! Goldman will sell NFTs priced at $1000, not shares. What do you get with the NFT? Stop asking stupid questions peasant. Just sell it to someone else in a month for 2000.

      Ok fine. It comes with a picture of an ape. What does that have to do with Madoff Investments, Inc? According to your perspective, either nothing, or everything…

  26. Old Engineer says:

    This sentence is a classic!
    (And, it seems to me, the definition of a Ponzi scheme, though one that is out in the open, to be sure.)

    “What Moody’s is saying is that despite large leverage, persistent losses, and persistent negative cashflows, Carvana has been able to bamboozle public markets into forking over more money to keep it afloat, and that ability to extract money from new investors to pay off existing investors is why the outlook is “stable” after today’s downgrade.”

    • 91B20 1stCav (AUS) says:

      OE-never underestimate the persuasive power of TV advertising on significant portions of the ‘Murican public…

      may we all find a better day.

  27. SoCalBeachDude says:

    Tesla shares down 10% in early afternoon trade…

  28. JJ says:

    Wolf was blogging earlier how amazing the Microsoft CEO sold half his shares at the peak market price.

    I think the Garcia family’s father sold a huge chunk of his Carvana holdings at the top as well, as another example of amazing insider sales timing.

    I’m too rushed to research specifics, but I do know there is a Carvana CEO insider selling story very similar to Microsoft’s.

  29. Augustus Frost says:

    It’s one of hundreds of public companies selling at nose bleed prices that should be valued at $0.

  30. Scoopu says:

    Toyota and Mazda are both reported as ending ties with Adesa. These are both two large accounts. Garcia is trying to play this down in his recent statements. I’m sure in the sale the Toyota and Mazda revenue were accounted for, now its gone. Other major sellers are sure to follow and take the buyers with them to Manheim. If I’m a rep at Manheim I’m taking Adesa accounts with ease…

  31. DR DOOM says:

    CNN+ would still in business with its 10 subscribers if it had some Carvana suckers ready and willing to piss away a few billion. The human tampon B. Selter could have dominated that demographic un-challenged.

  32. Dan Romig says:

    Watching the Indy cars in Alabama today was an onslaught of Carvana advertising. Everton hosted Chelsea earlier today, and they are also sponsored by Carvana.

    Big bucks are being thrown at name recognition, that’s for sure.

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