Task Force Advisor Sees IPO on GM Stock in 2010

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Auto Task Force Adviser Wilson Sees GM IPO in 2010 (Update1)
By Christopher Scinta

July 1 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., the bankrupt automaker selling most of its assets to the U.S. government, may file for an initial public offering of its stock in 2010, said an adviser to the Obama Administration’s auto task force.

GM is in bankruptcy court today seeking approval to sell most of its assets to the Treasury, which is paying for the company with the more than $27 billion in loans it has made to the automaker.

“We plan to sell our stake at some point,” Harry Wilson, the auto task force adviser, testified today, saying the government won’t make an open-ended commitment to fund GM. “We anticipate an IPO sometime in 2010.”

Some bondholders and tort claimants have objected to the sale, challenging the decision by GM to sell most of its assets to the Treasury instead of proposing a traditional Chapter 11 turnaround plan and allowing creditors to vote.

Wilson said a sale provided “speed, certainty and the ability to leave behind liabilities,” versus restructuring in a traditional Chapter 11 plan. All the finance and bankruptcy experts the auto task force spoke with said GM wouldn’t survive a traditional restructuring process, he said.

The Treasury won’t provide further financing to GM if an order approving the sale of most of the automaker’s assets isn’t signed by July 10, Wilson testified.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=atddnjiw0N0M