Late last year, the U.S. Department of Treasury announced it would sell all its remaining stock in General Motors in 12 to 15 months.
Today, the Treasury is announcing a plan for another big sell-off.
Officials say, "subject to market conditions," they intend to sell 30 million additional shares of GM common stock "in conjunction with GM’s inclusion to the S&P 500 index effective as of the close of trading on June 6, 2013."
GM was removed from Standard & Poor’s 500 index four years ago as the company went through bankruptcy. Getting back on the index is another milestone for the company.
Another part owner of GM, the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust, will also sell-off some of its stock. That trust is expected to sell 20 million shares, which makes the total offering size 50 million shares of GM stock.
Nathan Boomey of the Detroit Free Press has the government ownership tally for us:
The government is expected to lose more than $10 billion on its $49.5 billion GM bailout. At the end of the first quarter, the U.S. still owned about 16% of GM, down from 26.5% in late 2012.
In its press release, the U.S. Treasury Department said winding down its investment in GM is part of winding down the entire Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in general.
Officials say they have recouped the majority of that investment:
To date, Treasury has already recovered nearly 95 percent ($398.15 billion) of the funds disbursed through TARP ($419.97 billion). Excluding the housing programs, Treasury disbursed $411.72 billion for all TARP investment programs and has now recovered $415.71 billion (including the proceeds from sales of all Treasury AIG shares).
