Treasury Sold Off Nearly $490 Million GM Shares Last Month

The U.S. Treasury unloaded at least 17.2 million shares of General Motors Co. stock last month, another step closer to reaching its goal of exiting its stakes in the company by March 2014. The government said in a report to Congress late yesterday $489.9 million was raised from the February GM shares sale.

Treasury didn’t divulge the exact amount of shares sold, but stock prices last month indicated between 17.2 million and 18.1 million were sold. Year to date, the government sold at least 22.6 million shares, roughly 7% of the 300 million shares it will unload. During the eight full trading days in January, Treasury garnered $156.4 million in net proceeds for the sale of the automaker’s stock.

Of its $49.5 billion bailout, Treasury recovered $29.8 billon, exchanging most of the 2008 and 2009 GM bailout for a majority stake of 61% in 2009. The government dropped nearly half of the stake in the automaker’s initial public offering in November 2010, and following the December sale in which 200 million shares were sold to the Detroit carmaker for $5.5 billion, its stake in the company was reduced to 19%.

The government plans to release how many GM shares it sells quarterly, and will announce its proceeds from the sales on a monthly basis.