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How Apollo’s Last-Minute Twist Salvaged Carvana’s Debt Sale

  • Apollo ended up with about $1 billion of the total financing
  • Pimco, Franklin also swooped in with large orders for deal
Vehicles inside the Carvana Co. car vending machine in Frisco, Texas, U.S.

Vehicles inside the Carvana Co. car vending machine in Frisco, Texas, U.S.

Photographer: Laura Buckman/Bloomberg

Carvana Co.’s bankers at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. were in a bind. 

The bank duo were trying to sell a roughly $3.3 billion debt package to finance the used-car retailer’s purchase of Adesa Inc.’s U.S. car-auction business -- a deal that would not only widen Carvana’s geographic footprint, but also slash delivery times and boost production capacity.