General Motors headquarters in Detroit. Photo Credit: General Motors.
Back in 2009, as General Motors (GM 5.23%) filed for a unique bankruptcy, the U.S. government extended $49.5 billion in loans to General Motors for $2.1 billion in preferred stock, and a 60.8% equity stake. Slowly, the U.S. Treasury has unloaded its shares of the once-troubled automaker and investors continue to cheer the move. General Motors' stock price is up nearly 4% today as the Treasury announced in a monthly report to Congress that it raised another $1.2 billion in October from sales of its GM shares.
That means the Treasury has recovered just over $37 billion of its investment in General Motors through repayments, stock sales, dividends, interest, and other income. It's well on its way to completely exiting its General Motors stake by the end of March 2014, as intended, but it's highly probable the Treasury could rid itself of all shares earlier.
Near the end of September, the Treasury owned a bit more than100 million shares of General Motors, enough for a 7% stake in the company. It wasn't specified exactly how many shares were unloaded in October; but, given the $1.2 billion recouped, and GM's stock price during the month, analysts believe the Treasury's stake in GM is now less than 4%.
