WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) – The White House said on Tuesday that companies are planning to invest more than $700 million to boost U.S. manufacturing capacity for electric vehicle (EV) chargers – actions set to add at least 2,000 jobs and make charging more accessible and affordable.
The investments include $450 million earmarked by Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) unit Electrify America and more than $250 million by Siemens (SIEGn.DE) to expand its Grand Prairie, Texas and Ponoma, California EV charger plants.
FLO, an EV charging network operator, is also investing $3 million in its first U.S. assembly plant in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
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The investments will help boost U.S. manufacturing capacity for EV chargers to more than 250,000 per year, the White House said, without giving a figure for current production capacity.
Last August, President Joe Biden set a non-binding goal to make half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 electric, fuel cell or plug-in hybrid. As part of that, he wants to see the U.S. network of EV chargers grow to 500,000 by 2030, up from about 100,000 today.
The investments by private companies follow more than $7.5 billion in subsidies that were in last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law.
Biden’s goals and the subsidies have helped spur private investments, White House deputy national climate advisor Ali Zaidi told reporters on Monday.
That has meant “chargers weren’t getting brought in from overseas (and) they were being a source of opportunity in communities all around the country,” he said in a call about a U.S. report showing jobs in the energy business rose 4% last year, led by jobs in carbon-cutting vehicles. read more
The U.S. public charging network for EVs is becoming more robust, but significant differences in reliability and performance remain between providers, an industry ranking by engineering consulting firm umlaut found this year. read more
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Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Edwina Gibbs
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A electric vehicle charger is seen as a vehicle charges in Manhattan, New York, U.S., December 7, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
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June 28 (Reuters) – German industrial giant Siemens AG (SIEGn.DE) is investing more than $100 million in Volkswagen AG’s (VOWG_p.DE) Electrify America unit, becoming the first outside investor in the North American network of electric vehicle charging stations.
Including new funds from its parent Volkswagen, the Electrify America unit would receive a total injection of $450 million, the companies said.
The partnership in Electrify America is “part of a much larger investment that Siemens is making in the electrification market,” said John DeBoer, head of the Siemens’ North American e-mobility unit.
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Electrify America was established by VW in 2017 with a 10-year, $2-billion investment commitment in the wake of the German automaker’s diesel emissions cheating scandal.
The two companies did not specify the exact amount each is contributing to the latest investment, other than to say Siemens’ share is more than $100 million.
Siemens, which is making the investment through financing arm Siemens Financial Services, will be a minority investor with a seat on Electrify America’s board.
A year ago, Reuters reported that VW intended to sell a stake in Electrify America as the automaker hoped to attract up to $1 billion in outside funding to help expand infrastructure for electric vehicles. read more
In an interview, Giovanni Palazzo, Electrify America president and CEO, said the company still plans to more than double its charging infrastructure to 1,800 charging stations and more than 10,000 fast chargers by 2026.
Electrify America has EV charging partnerships with a broad array of vehicle manufacturers outside the Volkswagen Group, including Ford Motor Co (F.N), Hyundai/Kia (005380.KS), BMW (BMWG.DE), Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE), Geely Automobile’s (0175.HK) Volvo and Polestar, and Tesla rival Lucid (LCID.O).
Siemens, which builds charging stations for commercial fleets and other customers, has invested in several electrification companies, including Swedish battery startup Northvolt and wireless charging startup WiTricity, as well as Electrify America competitor ChargePoint (CHPT.N), according to investor website PitchBook.
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Editing by Deepa Babington
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LONDON, June 28 (Reuters) – The war in Ukraine is making it hard for even unsanctioned Russians to sell exclusive residential property in Britain, adding to a shortage of supply that has helped drive up house prices in prime locations, real estate sources say.
Russian oligarchs, Middle Eastern oil barons and billionaire Chinese entrepreneurs have been on a spending spree on London real estate over the past three decades, snapping up trophy homes and high-end commercial property.
But the four-month-old invasion of Ukraine, which Russia calls a special military operation, has prompted Britain to slap sanctions on more than 1,100 Russians it says have ties to the Kremlin, spreading unease and freezing house sales in so-called Londongrad, agents say.
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“There have definitely been a number of transactions that have not gone through, two in excess of 40 million pounds ($49 million),” said Charlie Willis, CEO of property broker The London Broker, adding that in both cases, the buyers were advised not to proceed “just because the seller was originally Russian”. He declined to give further details.
THE BIG SQUEEZE
A widespread shortage of available properties has pushed up prime London prices by 4.7% since the invasion, according to agents Benham & Reeves, although prices in Belgravia and Knightsbridge – popular locations for Russians – have climbed slightly less, at 3.3%.
“The market’s being fuelled by a lack of supply,” said Geoff Garrett, director at mortgage broker Henry Dannell.
The number of prime central London residential sales was down 30% between March and May compared with last year, though still up on pre-pandemic levels, according to property data firm LonRes.
Estate agent Aston Chase estimates there are over 150,000 Russians living in London who between them own eight billion pounds of real estate assets, businesses, and other investments in Britain.
But Mark Pollack, Aston Chase’s co-founder, says wealthy Russians are increasingly cautious about being caught up in the web of sanctions.
“Russians aren’t buying (in the same way) and they are not selling, not necessarily because they don’t want to in some instances, but because they probably can’t or it might be sensible to hope the … dust settles,” he said.
Britain in February scrapped its so-called “golden visas” for wealthy investors and last month announced plans for a new economic crime bill, intended in part to identify the owners of property in Britain and combat illicit finance, although critics say loopholes remain.
Henry Sherwood, managing director of The Buying Agents, which focuses on properties starting at around five million pounds, said the crack down had helped dash hopes the war and sanctions might lead to a flurry of cut-price Russian sales.
At the beginning of the war, “we had people ringing up saying: ‘Have you got any Russians selling?’,” he said.
But he added: “The more discreet don’t want to have anything to do with them. Our buyers don’t want to be associated with firesales – they don’t want to get into a transaction that will never happen.”
One unsanctioned Russian failed to secure three lawyers before finding one willing to help him sell an expensive London property, a senior executive at a property development firm on the other side of the deal told Reuters.
Russian tenants including students are also finding it hard to transfer funds due to sanctions, forcing them to withdraw from the market in London, said Marc von Grundherr, director at Benham & Reeves.
Unprecedented Western sanctions on Moscow, the withdrawal from Russia of scores of Western companies and pressure on London’s advisory companies to cut links with Russian clients have driven some Russian buyers to friendlier property hotspots such as Dubai or Istanbul. read more
One Russian client, Pollack said, had pulled out of buying an 18 million pound London apartment when Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine in February because they were nervous about the political rhetoric in Britain. They still want a London home, but have halved their budget, he said.
But buyers from other regions are helping to keep the London market buoyant.
International buyers have accounted for at least a third of property purchases in prime central London locations in every quarter between 2011 and 2019, according to data from Statista.
Vic Chhabria, managing director at agent London Real Estate Office, which specialises in new constructions as well as high-rise condominiums and luxury homes, said his appointment diary was full, with most interest from buyers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Mumbai willing to spend between two and 20 million pounds.
A prolonged war, tighter regulation, rising interest rates, raging inflation and brutal stock market drops could yet take the heat out of some of that growth, agents added.
“The property market has been flying over the course of the last two to three years,” said Garrett. “All of these cycles have to slow.”
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Editing by Mark Potter
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LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) – The London Metal Exchange said on Thursday it had appointed management consultants Oliver Wyman to carry out an independent review of the events that led to a week-long suspension of nickel trading in March.
The world’s largest and oldest forum for metals was forced to halt the nickel market and cancel all trades on March 8 after prices spiked more than 50% to hit a record above $100,000 a tonne in a few hours. Nickel trading resumed on March 16 when the exchange introduced daily price limits.
Oliver Wyman, which advises clients on how to improve their operations, will carry out the review expected to run until December and aim to publish a report at the end of the process.
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The review will look at the factors that “contributed to market conditions … in the period leading up to, and including, 8 March 2022 and make recommendations to reduce the likelihood of similar events occurring,” the exchange said in a statement.
“The assessment will not cover the decision-making processes and governance arrangements at the LME and at its clearing house, LME Clear.”
Decision-making and governance will be a part of the regulatory reviews to be undertaken by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England (BoE).
The FCA regulates the trading activities of the LME as a UK Recognised Investment Exchange and the BoE regulates the clearing activities of LME Clear as a Recognised UK Central Counterparty.
Suspending and cancelling nickel trades drew the ire of producers and traders who rely on LME prices of the metal used to make stainless steel and electric vehicle batteries. It has also left the exchange vulnerable to lawsuits.
U.S. hedge fund Elliott Associates and Jane Street Global Trading are suing the LME for $456 million and $15.3 million respectively for cancelled nickel trades. read more
The nickel price surge was blamed on short-covering by one of the world’s top nickel producers, China’s Tsingshan Holding Group. The LME has said the large short positions originated primarily from the over-the-counter (OTC) market. read more
Last week the LME, owned by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (0388.HK), approved rules for members to report all OTC positions from July 18 and said it would require holders of large OTC positions to explain the rationale behind them.
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Reporting by Pratima Desai; additional reporting by Eric Onstad; editing by John Stonestreet, Barbara Lewis and David Evans
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LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) – The North Sea’s biggest oil and gas producer, Harbour Energy (HBR.L), has told the British government that Britain’s planned windfall tax on the energy sector will shrink the company’s investment in the country.
With oil and gas prices soaring and households feeling the hit from higher prices across the board, Britain last month announced plans to introduce a 25% windfall tax on oil and gas producers’ profits, with a view to raising $5 billion. read more
A meeting between representatives of oil and gas producers in the British North Sea, including Harbour, and Treasury officials is scheduled to take place on Thursday in Aberdeen, Scotland, a Harbour spokesperson and two industry sources said.
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“We must reassess our strategy and plans in the UK which will, I am afraid, lead to lower investment, not more,” Chief Executive Linda Cook said in an undated letter seen by Reuters to British finance minister Rishi Sunak.
Britain is allowing the impact of the levy to be offset against fresh investments in oil and gas projects. read more
But Cook said the incentive does not help companies like Harbour that have invested in new projects such as the Tolmount gas field, which increases UK gas output by 5%.
Cook said the levy hurt so-called independent producers such as Harbour disproportionately more than oil majors active in the British North Sea, such as BP (BP.L) or Shell (SHEL.L).
A Harbour Energy spokesperson said: “we do envisage a significant impact on our business, our strategy, and our ability to invest in our current and future projects in the UK.”
Oil and gas producers such as Harbour typically hedge more than half of the volumes they sell in advance to lock in a price floor, often to satisfy covenants with lenders. This means that they can miss out on price spikes in the open market.
Cook asked Sunak to change the tax plan to reflect past investments, decommissioning spending as well as to scrap the levy by the end of next year and put in a higher profit threshold for companies affected by the tax.
Harbour’s share price has slumped around 19% since the plan was announced on May 26.
“Our existing and prospective shareholders … are now actively questioning the future of our assets in the UK and struggle to evaluate their remaining potential given the uncertain and unpredictable fiscal environment,” Cook said.
“They are also, rightly, questioning our strategy to remain a large UK oil and gas producer and continuing to invest in the country.”
Harbour’s biggest shareholders include private equity firm EIG, which holds a 36% stake, and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and Fidelity, which hold around 5% each, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.
The Treasury had no immediate reply to a request for comment.
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Reporting by Ron Bousso
Writing by Shadia Nasralla
Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Mark Potter
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June 15 (Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday requested information on the activities of financial information providers amid growing concerns over their influence on investment decisions, despite not being fully regulated.
Critics have expressed concerns that information providers, particularly index companies such as S&P Global, MSCI (MSCI.N) and FTSE Russell which assist in trillions of dollars of investment decisions globally, have acted as unregulated investment advisors.
“The role of these information providers today raises important questions under the securities laws as to when they are providing investment advice rather than merely information,” U.S. SEC chair Gary Gensler said in a statement.
Index providers are currently treated as data publishers by the SEC.
The information gathered will help the watchdog to understand whether information providers should be regulated, given the influence of these companies in driving investment decisions, the statement said.
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Reporting by Akriti Sharma and Shubhendu Deshmukh in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin
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COPENHAGEN, June 15 (Reuters) – Toymaker Lego on Wednesday said it will invest more than $1 billion in a factory in the United States to shorten supply chains and keep up with growing demand for its coloured plastic bricks in one of its biggest markets.
The factory in Chesterfield County, Virginia, will be the Danish company’s second in North America and seventh worldwide, after it announced a new factory in Vietnam last year. read more
The investment is in line with a decade-old strategy of placing production close to its key markets, which the company says has been beneficial as the global retail industry faces pandemic-related supply chain issues. The plant will also be carbon neutral.
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“Our strategy to be close to our core markets has only been confirmed recently,” Chief Operations Officer Carsten Rasmussen told Reuters.
The toy market is characterized by large seasonal fluctuations, while more than half of the company’s products in stores are new items, he said.
“It’s difficult to predict what children and adults want to buy for a birthday or for Christmas. So the reaction time is very worthwhile to make sure we have the right products on the shelves,” said Rasmussen.
The factory will be powered by renewable energy produced at an onsite solar park, the company said.
Lego has pledged to replace oil-based plastic bricks with ones made from sustainable materials by the end of the decade.
The 160,000-square-meter factory is scheduled to be operational in the second half of 2025 and will employ more than 1,760 people. Lego closed a smaller factory in Connecticut in 2006, and the U.S. market is currently supplied from a factory in Mexico.
“The U.S. market has done really well in recent years. We see huge potential in the United States and throughout the Americas,” said Rasmussen.
The company now employs around 2,600 people in the United States, where it operates 100 stores.
The family-owned company outpaced growth in the toy industry last year, with sales growing 27% to 55.3 billion Danish crowns ($7.8 billion). The company is also investing in increasing capacity at existing factories in Europe and China. read more
Lego produces roughly 100 billion bricks each year and employs around 24,000 people worldwide.
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Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Mark Porter
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DUBAI, June 15 (Reuters) – The prince who’s the international face of Saudi business may no longer be able to call all the shots.
For years, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Saudi Arabia’s self-styled Warren Buffett, has made hundreds of millions of dollars by investing in companies from Citigroup (C.N) to Uber (UBER.N) to Twitter (TWTR.N) with almost complete autonomy.
Now, his Kingdom Holding (4280.SE) investment firm counts Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) as a minority shareholder and the powerful sovereign wealth fund is unlikely to sit on the sidelines, sources familiar with the matter said.
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The wealth fund, which is at the heart of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious plan to diversify the Saudi economy, will want Kingdom Holding’s investment committee to have more power over decision making than in the past, two sources with knowledge of Kingdom’s business told Reuters
“(PIF) will want to be an active investor,” said a sovereign wealth fund investor in the Gulf. “The investment committee of Kingdom Holding is essentially Alwaleed, and I can’t imagine the PIF being at the whims of the prince.”
The PIF, Kingdom Holding, Prince Alwaleed and his spokesman all declined to comment when contacted by Reuters about what PIF’s minority stake would mean for future investments.
Alwaleed, 67, had long kept a tight grip on Kingdom’s shares, owning all but 5% traded on the Saudi stock market until PIF purchased a 16.87% stake for $1.5 billion last month.
The deal came more than four years after Prince Alwaleed was swept up in an anti-corruption drive ordered by the Crown Prince and held for nearly three months at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton along with scores of royals, senior officials and businessmen.
Most detainees were released after reaching financial settlements and Prince Alwaleed said in March 2018 that he had struck a confidential and secret deal with the government.
It was not clear whether the PIF purchase was related to the settlement. A spokesman for Prince Alwaleed, the grandson of Saudi Arabia’s first king Abdulaziz and Lebanon’s first prime minister Riad Al Solh, has said it was purely a business deal.
The PIF deal was struck at Kingdom Holding’s lowest share price this year, with no premium. Bankers who usually work with the PIF or Alwaleed were not engaged for this deal, two sources familiar with the matter said.
‘CHANGE OF TACK’
The Saudi state took direct controlling stakes in the businesses of some Saudi entrepreneurs detained in 2017, including the Binladen construction group and media company MBC, as part of the settlements securing their release.
Analysts said, however, that the intervention in Kingdom Holding marked a shift in strategy by the Saudi government, as the other stakes are being held by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) rather than the wealth fund.
“It is an indication of a change of tack,” said James Swanston, Middle East and North Africa economist at Capital Economics. “With PIF now holding the stake, it may now be seen more as an investment opportunity.”
The PIF’s role is to earn enough income through investments to develop new sectors in the Saudi economy whereas the Ministry of Finance is more the guardian of day-to-day spending and is much less strategic or interested in risk, said Jim Krane, research fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute.
Alwaleed’s investment style has focused on new opportunities that could be very lucrative but carry risk, as well as looking at undervalued assets, said one of the sources with knowledge of Kingdom’s business.
“The PIF is essentially buying a stake in Prince Alwaleed’s successful investing track record. As long as Alwaleed demonstrates he can still pick winners, Saudis will benefit,” said Jim Krane, author of “Energy Kingdoms: Oil and Political Survival in the Persian Gulf.”
Alwaleed rose to international prominence after making a big successful bet on Citigroup in the 1990s and he was an early investor in Apple (AAPL.O).
The prince and Kingdom also made a joint investment of $300 million in Twitter in 2011 and he raised his stake in 2015. Last month, he agreed to roll a stake now worth $1.89 billion into Elon Musk’s takeover deal, rather than cashing out.
SUCCESSION
While PIF’s move may affect Prince Alwaleed’s room for manoeuvre, Kingdom Holding will benefit from the sovereign wealth fund’s political and financial clout when it comes to dealmaking, the two sources close to Kingdom said.
Since becoming a more active investor in 2015, the sovereign wealth fund has taken some bold steps to raise its profile in the world of business and sport.
It took a $3.5 billion stake in Uber before its listing, invested $45 billion in Softbank’s inaugural technology fund, bought 80% of British soccer club Newcastle United last year and has disrupted the world of golf with its new LIV league.
The PIF now manages more than $600 billion of assets though its investment record has been mixed.
It made a huge profit from investing in electric vehicle maker Lucid (LCID.O) before it listed, but its Softbank investment has been more volatile as rising rates and geopolitical instability whiplashed high-growth tech stocks.
The wealth fund is backing the Crown Prince’s mega projects in his Vision 2030 economic diversification plan.
Property consultant Knight Frank estimates projects to develop Saudi Arabia’s nascent tourism industry and other sectors, which includes building a vast futuristic green city called NEOM for $500 billion, are worth over $1 trillion.
But Riyadh has struggled as many foreign investors as hoped and the PIF could benefit from Alwaleed’s relations with key players in the hotel industry thanks to stakes in Four Seasons as well as the Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel chains.
Despite his high-profile image, Alwaleed has kept close to his roots. He often heads deep into the Saudi desert, where he spends time with guests and meets tribesmen and their families.
The fact his son Khaled bin Alwaleed has forged his own path, investing in technology, real estate, food manufacturing and vegan chains through his KBW Ventures and KBW Investments, has raised the question of succession, three sources said.
One source from the world of finance said PIF could propose a candidate to be groomed by the prince as a successor.
“You take the prince out of the equation, and it’s just a Saudi investment holding company,” the person said. “I don’t think many of these deals would have been done without him.”
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Reporting by Hadeel al Sayegh and Saeed Azhar; Editing by David Clarke
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SEOUL, June 13 (Reuters) – Young South Koreans are buying homes in defiance of sharp rate rises that has once again put the spotlight on a severe housing shortage, complicating President Yoon Suk-yeol’s plans to ease a property affordability crisis in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy.
Oh Ye-seul, a 26 year-old who works at a start-up firm in Seoul’s posh Gangnam district, is the sort of individual who finds little or no sway in Yoon’s pledges.
In March, when Yoon swept to power amid anger over his predecessor Moon Jae-in’s failures to tame runaway home prices, Oh bought an apartment at a price slightly under 600 million won ($466,236), about half an hour’s subway ride from her office.
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Such purchases, which an increasing number of young Koreans are pursuing, are being made despite rapid interest rate hikes by the Bank of Korea and suggest the public remain sceptical of Yoon’s vow to ease an affordability crisis that has eluded successive administrations. read more
Moreover, it also raises broader economic implications as mortgage rates have spiked to nine-year highs, adding to strains on households saddled with the world’s highest debt loads and a global surge in prices for everything from petrol to food to consumer items.
While much of the buying is being fuelled by the fear of missing out on a property due to soaring prices, the risk down the road is of a sharp housing correction, and consumption downturn.
“The continued snapping up of homes by young people is coming at a time when interest rates are rising fast, so consumption could be hit as many will be forced to cut back on their living expenses,” said Park Sung-woo, an economist at DB Financial Investment.
“South Korea’s household debt is reaching some dangerous levels, and we need to see a slowdown in homebuying and mortgage growth to ease that risk.”
Total debt held by South Korea’s households, worth $1.5 trillion or 104% of country’s gross domestic product, is higher than any other 35 countries tracked by the Institute of International Finance.
WEALTH CREATOR
For now, though, many young Koreans continue buying property even as the BOK is expected to lift borrowing costs further on top of its 125-bps of rate hikes delivered since August.
Yoon has pledged to relax loan curbs and supplying 2.5 million apartments to ease an acute shortage of property, including loosening loan-to-value (LTV) restrictions from July. read more
But buyers like Oh, who have pushed up the proportion of Seoul home buyers in their 20s and 30s to 43% in April, up for a second month from 36% in February, are not prepared to wait. In Seoul’s central districts of Jongno, Gwanak, and Seongdong, more than half of the buyers were from the age group.
Real estate is one of the biggest wealth creators for South Koreans, with 73% of total household assets invested in property as of 2021, government data showed.
Oh considers herself lucky to have secured a mortgage with a state-run lender that offers cheap, fixed-rate loans to first home buyers.
The poor performance of domestic and global stocks, with the local benchmark KOSPI (.KS11) down 15% year-to-date, has also provided an extra incentive for Koreans to invest in a property.
Oh said she wasn’t overly worried about a housing correction, adding “there will be even more demand from first-time buyers for small-sized apartments like my own once borrowing regulations ease.”
In fact, a May BOK survey showed South Koreans remained largely optimistic about property prices for the next 12 months.
Such attitudes to home purchases will be a test for Yoon’s government, which is trying to tame a red-hot market where average apartment prices have doubled to more than a million dollars in metropolitan Seoul during Moon’s five-year term even as household incomes have failed to keep pace. read more
That has made home ownership unaffordable for many, especially first-home buyers, with data from one of the nation’s largest commercial banks KB Bank suggesting it now takes 19 years to buy an average apartment in Seoul for an average wage earner.
For Yoon, the promise to supply millions of apartments is facing practical hurdles, especially as soaring global inflation has sharply lifted construction costs and is slowing down many other planned projects. Moon’s administration didn’t acknowledge the housing shortage until late in his five-year tenure.
“For President Yoon, it will be tough to restore trust from young people on his policy initiatives, because previous policies caused them to feel left out from property market gains,” said Lee Da-eun, an analyst at Daishin Securities.
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Editing by Shri Navaratnam
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A view of the Carro signage at their showroom in Singapore June 15, 2021. REUTERS/Edgar Su
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SINGAPORE, June 6 (Reuters) – Singapore-headquartered Carro, a Southeast Asian online used-car marketplace, has acquired a 50% stake in the rental unit of Indonesian automotive group PT Mitra Pinasthika Mustika Tbk (MPMX.JK) for nearly $54 million, both companies said in a joint statement on Monday.
PT Mitra Pinasthika Mustika Rent (MPMRent) is one of Indonesia’s leading car rental firms with a fleet of more than 13,000 cars and provides financing services.
Carro counts SoftBank Group Corp’s (9984.T) Vision Fund investment arm, Singapore sovereign fund GIC and state investor Temasek (TEM.UL) among its biggest investors.
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Since being founded in 2015, Carro has raised more than $600 million in equity and nearly $300 million in debt.
Carro’s platform allows consumers and wholesale businesses to buy and sell used vehicles and also offers insurance and financing services.
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Reporting by Anshuman Daga; Editing by Shailesh Kuber
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