Cars and Drivers

Government Ownership of GM Stock to End by New Year

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The U.S. Treasury Department announced Thursday morning that it will sell the remaining 31.1 million shares of stock the government owns in General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) by the end of 2013 if average daily trading volumes in the stock remain at recent levels. So far the Treasury has recovered $38.4 billion of its original $51 billion investment in GM.

At Wednesday’s closing price of $37.69, the Treasury’s holding of GM stock is worth about $1.2 billion, making the federal government’s loss on the deal $11.4 billion.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) did not accept any federal funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) of 2008-2009, saying that it did not need the money. The Treasury committed $12.5 billion to a bailout of Chrysler before the U.S. carmaker was acquired out of bankruptcy by Italy’s Fiat. Chrysler has repaid $11.2 billion, and the Treasury does not believe it will recover the remaining $1.3 billion owed by old Chrysler.

Fiat has filed for an initial public offering of Chrysler stock at the urging of a union pension fund that owns about 42% of Chrysler’s stock and essentially demanded an IPO after the Italian firm failed to make an acceptable offer to acquire the union’s stake in Chrysler. If the offering happens, it is likely to be in the first half of next year.

In its latest report on TARP, the Treasury Department said it has disbursed $420.9 billion of the congressionally authorized $700 billion, and the total repayments through the end of August have exceeded total disbursements by $900 million.

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