General Motors Co., the new automaker majority-owned by the U.S. Treasury, said it intends to make an initial public offering of stock by July 10, 2010, the one-year anniversary of its bankruptcy exit.
The target date range for an IPO was given in a U.S. regulatory filing today. Detroit-based GM and its government owners will take "reasonable best efforts" to sell shares within a year, dependent on market conditions, according to the filing.
"That would be the very earliest they could do it," said Erich Merkle, president of Grand Rapids, Michigan-based consulting firm Autoconomy LLC. "A lot of it's going to depend on where auto sales are and how many vehicles GM is producing."
GM's filing summarized the activities of the reorganized company in the four weeks since leaving court protection, without giving financial results. It will start releasing that data after the third quarter, a spokeswoman, Renee Rashid-Merem, said in an interview.
"Today's disclosures are consistent with our commitment to remain transparent and to keep the public informed of our progress," Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson said in a statement.
The Treasury owns 60.8 percent of GM, the successor to the former General Motors Corp., which filed for Chapter 11 on June 1. The other stakes are 17.5 percent for a trust for United Auto Workers' retiree medical bills; 11.7 percent for the Canadian and Ontario governments; and 10 percent for Motors Liquidation Co., as the remnants of the old GM are now known.
2.5 Billion Shares
GM said it was authorized to issue 2.5 billion shares of common stock. "Only a portion of them would likely be issued if an IPO is launched," Rashid-Merem said.
GM slid into bankruptcy protection after losses of $88 billion since 2004, when the company last posted an annual profit. Henderson is facing a streak of monthly sales declines at the biggest U.S. automaker dating to October 2007.
The Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric sedan, featured in GM's marketing as one of the models that will help revive the company, "has not yet proven to be commercially viable," according to today's filing. The technology required to power the car may not be developed in time for its planned November 2010 debut, the automaker said.
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