Treasury to Unload 30 Million Additional GM Shares

The U.S. Treasury Department announced yesterday on its website that it was selling 30 million shares of General Motors Co. common stock in an underwritten public offering in conjunction with the automaker’s return to the S&P 500 Index, effective as of close of trading Wednesday. The offering also features an additional 20 million shares from the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust, bringing the deal’s total offering to 50 million shares.

This is the latest step in the government’s exiting its investment in GM, which it had 60.8% ownership in the company following the manufacturer’s 2009 bailout. In December, the Treasury announced that it would sell its GM shares within 12 to 15 months, depending on the market.

That same month, GM bought back 200 million common stock shares from the government for $5.5 billion. By the end of March, the U.S. government recouped $30.4 billion of its $49.5 billion bailout of Detroit automaker. The Treasury still owns 241.7 million shares, or about 18%, of common GM shares.

According to the Treasury website, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC are acting as the joint book-running managers of the current deal.