General Motors Co. priced its historic initial public offering at $33 per share, raising $20.1 billion in common and preferred stock in one of the largest U.S. stock offerings, according to people familiar with the deal.
After the market closed Wednesday, Wall Street underwriters set the price on 478 million common shares, with another 71.7 million expected to be sold if bankers exercise an overallotment option known as the green shoe.
The underwriters also boosted the size of a planned preferred stock offering to $4.4 billion, which could also be increased in the green shoe by another $650 million. If the decision is made in the next few days to exercise both overallotments, the deal could raise a total of $23.1 billion.
The deal grew in size over the past few weeks, driven by better-than-expected demand from U.S. mutual funds, according one person familiar with the deal.
Proceeds from the sale largely will go to the U.S. government, which owns 61% of GM after restructuring the car maker last year in bankruptcy court.
The auto maker has returned $9.5 billion of the $49.5 billion the U.S. spent to rescue GM last year. The Obama administration will seek to recoup the rest through the sale of stock over the next couple of years.
Dennis Berman and Simon Constable discuss how GM's underwriters achieved a high opening price for GM's IPO, an effort that will help to return billions of dollars of taxpayer bailout money to the U.S. Treasury.
The U.S. Treasury, which has kept close tabs GM's operations since bailing out the auto maker last year, will reduce its oversight role after initial public offering on Thursday, people familiar with the matter said.
GM will continue briefings with Obama administration officials but will operate with less involvement with the government now that the U.S. Treasury's key job of executing the IPO has ended.
For more than a year, GM executives, including its CEOs, have briefed administration officials on the company's operations about every other week. Those meetings will continue but take place less frequently after the government's stake is reduced in the IPO, people familiar with the matter said.
Treasury hasn't driven decisions on GM's operations or strategy since the company emerged from bankruptcy, people familiar with the situation say. The Obama administration was more hands on when GM was in the restructuring process, but has vowed to stay out of the company's affairs since it emerged from bankruptcy last summer.
The government's rescue of GM has been a burden for the company in the market place because many consumers dislike the bailout. Some continue to view the company as "government motors." Some investors, meantime, have shied away from owning a company they think could face interference from the government.
Meantime, Chinese auto maker SAIC Motor Corp. is awaiting Chinese government approval for its plan to buy about $500 million in shares as part of the IPO. That would give the Chinese company close to a 1% stake in GM.
SAIC is GM's main partner in making vehicles in China, which is now the largest market for GM cars and trucks.
The issue of foreign investors buying GM shares in the company's IPO is a thorny one for the U.S. Treasury, which worried about the political reaction if non-U.S. investors were allowed to acquire a significant stake in GM.
Some on Wall Street are concerned that GM and its banks may be overreaching, and that may crimp how much the stock rises in its first day of trading Thursday. Ordinarily, underwriters don't mind if a new stock issue rises 25% or more on its first day of trading, because the potential for such gains encourages money managers to buy shares.
But in the GM IPO, the underwriters are dealing with an unusual client: the U.S. Treasury. The government seeks to maximize how much it raises from the sale as it attempts to be paid back for its bailout.
The underwriters are targeting a first-day price gain of 10% to 20%, people familiar with their thinking said. If GM shares rise more than 20%, taxpayers might view it as a Wall Street giveaway to select investors.
