Now that GM has been informed by Treasury that bondholders will cry Uncle, let’s ask about equity in the new GM. What is GMAC now worth to GM and the newly rearranged equity? Prior to Thursday of last week, GMAC was basically locked out of the unsecured bond market, but as soon as the UAW made an agreement with GM, Sheila Bair immediaetly gave GMAC FDIC approval to issue AAA rated debt in the open market. This has giant implications for GMAC, their owners GM and Cerebus Capital. As part of the TARP agreement in December of 2008, both entities agreed to liquidate shares of GMAC. No sale has happened to date and now GMAC is worth a lot more since they can issue AAA debt at terrific rates and capitalize their balance sheet as well as roll out loans to dealers and consumers.
In April 2006, Cerebus paid 14 Billion for 51% of GMAC… surely there is a value now that will be of great help to GM in the coming weeks that will aid Treasury and the White House to pull GM out of this so called bankruptcy. Anyone see GMAC as the missing link?
