General Motors just filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission the documents necessary to get the SEC's approval to sell shares to the public. You can see the filing at the SEC site here.
ALSO ON DRIVE ON: Your questions answered about GM's IPO.
Announcing a switch in CEOs delayed the filing, which had been expected any day. GM boss Ed Whitacre announced last week that he will turn over the CEO and chairman titles to GM board member Dan Akerson, a managing director of the Carlyle Group, on Sept. 1. That's Akerson pictured at right. Also holding it up were the technicalities growing from the decision to combine an offering of ordinary common shares and new, preferred shares.
The documents don't say how many shares initially will be available, nor what price they're expected to fetch. GM says that'll be up to the marketplace.
Francis Gaskins, an IPO analyst, says it's likely that taxpayers will get back only about half their $50 billion investment in GM when the U.S. government sells it's 60.8% -- 304 million shares -- of GM once the IPO is approved.
GM went through a government-supervised Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization last year, financed by the U.S. and Canadian governments. They got stakes in the company in return, as did the United Auto Workers union for money owed a retiree health care trust. Those entities would sell their some or all of their holdings in the IPO as a way to begin to recoup their money.
But for the U.S. government -- taxpayers -- to get back the $50 billion or so put into GM, investors would have to value GM twice as much as Ford Motor, which is earning twice as much on the same revenue as GM.
-- James R. Healey/Drive On
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Chris Woodyard is an auto writer for USA TODAY who covers all aspects of motoring. He revels in the exhaust note of a Maserati and the sharp creases of a Cadillac CTS. Chris strives to live a Porsche life on a Scion budget. More about Chris
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