Carvana Shares Rebound as Mark Walter Selloff Fears Ease

Carvana shares climbed as much as 9.3% Wednesday (Aug. 19), after dropping 14% over the previous two days, when a report said billionaire Mark Walter wouldn’t be able to immediately sell his stake in the online car retailer, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

Walter, the CEO of Guggenheim Partners and TWG Global, is dealing with a federal probe of his investment empire. He is reshaping his holdings as he contends with the probe, and he agreed last week to sell the Los Angeles Lakers, according to the report.

Hunterbrook Media reported Tuesday (Aug. 18) that Walter’s stake in Carvana is pledged as collateral to Citigroup, per the Bloomberg report.

Walter holds a stake of about 4% in Carvana. The recent decline in the company’s stock price “was due to a supply issue, not a fundamental one,” and the report that Walter wouldn’t be able to immediately sell that stake “relieves those concerns for now” and contributed to the stock’s recovery, Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co., said in the Bloomberg report.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday (Aug. 17) that a federal investigation is focused on entities that served as intermediaries between insurance companies owned by Walter that made loans to businesses controlled by Walter.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan are among those leading the investigation, according to the report.

Neither Walter nor his businesses have been charged with any crimes or found liable for any civil penalties, the report said.

A TWG Global spokesman told WSJ, per the report: “We have always acted in good faith, and insinuations that we have in any way attempted to circumvent our obligations is simply false.”

Carvana reported July 29 that during the second quarter, it set records in retail units sold, quarterly Q2 net income and adjusted EBITDA. The automotive eCommerce retailer said its retail units sold increased 38% year over year to 197,000, its net income totaled $513 million and its adjusted EBITDA reached $769 million. Carvana achieved its retail unit sales growth during a quarter in which the industry was down about 4 points year over year.