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GM’s turnaround is almost complete.
Today the General filed the first reams of paperwork needed to go public, a move that will free the automaker from government ownership and pay back the last of the billions it needed to stay afloat following its bankruptcy last year.
GM’s 700-page S-1 Registration form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission begins the process that will lead to the initial public offering of stock. Although no date has been given for the IPO, analysts tell Reuters it could come as early as October. There also is no word on how many shares might be offered. The company’s stakeholders — including the U.S. Treasury and possibly the United Auto Workers and the Canadian government — will sell common stock. GM also will offer Series B preferred stock.
“The amount of securities offered will be determined by market conditions and other factors at the time of the offering,” the company said.
It was not clear how much stock Uncle Sam might want to unload, and details on how much money might be raised will come as we get closer to the sale. But the Los Angeles Times cites Renaissance Capital when it says the IPO could be among the largest IPOs in American history, rivaling the deal by Visa Inc. that raised $17.9 billion in March, 2008.
The U.S. Treasury poured some $50 billion into General Motors in 2008, a bailout that gave Uncle Sam 60.8 percent of GM’s stock. The bailout included a $6.7 billion loan through the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The Treasury Department said in a statement today that it would “retain the right, at all times, to decide whether and at what level to participate in the offering.”
Things have gone well for GM this year. Beyond paying back the TARP loan in April, the company has earned $2.2 billion in the first six months of 2010. The IPO announcement came one week after GM posted a second-quarter profit of $1.6 billion, its largest in six years.
“GM is rolling again – thanks the investment and patience of the American taxpayer,” U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, told the Detroit Free Press. “I’m glad to see GM taking steps to pay that money back and putting Americans back to work.”
GM plans to trade on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under its common symbol GM.
GM, founded on Sept. 16, 1908, was once among the most widely held stocks in the country. At its height, it had more than 1 million individual investors in the early 1960s. GM hit its highest market capitalization — $52 billion — in 2000, but its investors were almost completely wiped out when the company filed for bankruptcy in June, 2009. GM exited bankruptcy 40 days later.
Photo: GM. A autoworker installs a dashboard at GM’s Fairfax, Kansas, plant.

Fuente: Autopia