U.S. Treasury to Sell More GM Stock

The U.S. Treasury said this morning that it will sell another 30 million shares of stock in General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) in conjunction with GM's addition to the S&P 500 Index. The United Auto Workers Retiree Medical Benefits Trust will also sell 20 million shares, bringing the total share sale to 50 million shares.

At last night's closing price of nearly $35 a share, the Treasury's sale will bring in about $1.05 billion. In December, GM repurchased 200 million shares for about $8.7 billion. At that time the Treasury said it would sell its remaining 300 million shares in an orderly fashion and dump all its GM shares in 12 to 15 months. The Treasury sold 58.4 million shares in April for a total of about $1.6 billion in its first sale under the plan.

The Treasury disbursed about $51 billion to GM and has recovered about $31.1 billion (including interest payments) before today's announcement. With fewer than 112 million shares of GM stock remaining, chances are virtually zero that U.S. taxpayers will recoup their entire investment in the U.S. automaker.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Autos, Economy, Politics Tagged: GM