US Treasury to begin selling remaining GM stake

WASHINGTON - The US Treasury Department said on Monday that it would begin another round of sales of the General Motors (GM) stock it had acquired during the government bailout of the country's troubled automakers.

Treasury said that it would sell the remaining 241.7 million or so GM shares, as part of its continuing efforts to wind down the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

"TARP's emergency support of GM during the financial crisis was necessary to prevent the collapse of the American auto industry and save more than one million American jobs," said Timothy Massad, Treasury's Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability, in a statement.

"Earlier this year, Treasury launched an effort to sell its remaining shares in GM common stock. We are pleased with the progress to date and will continue exiting this investment in accordance with our previously announced plan and timetable, and in a manner that maximizes returns for taxpayers," he added.

In December 2012, the US Treasury announced that it intended to sell its remaining 300 million GM shares within the next 12-15 months subject to market conditions, after the auto giant had agreed to repurchase 200 million shares of its common stock from the government. In January this year, Treasury began the process of selling the GM shares into the market.

At the height of the 2008 financial crisis, the US government rolled out the controversial TARP, a bailout program for the nation's ailing financial companies and automakers. The government invested about $50 billion in GM through TARP.

By the end of March, Treasury had recovered approximately $30.4 billion of its investment in GM through repayments, sales of stock, dividends, interests, and other income, said the department in a recent report.