Is it really an IPO if it used to be public?
General Motors Is Going Public
By Chuck Squatriglia August 18, 2010 | 6:15 pm | Categories: Miscellaneous
GM’s turnaround is almost complete.
Today the General filed the first reams of paperwork needed to go public, a move that will free the automaker from government ownership and pay back the last of the billions it needed to stay afloat following its bankruptcy last year.
GM’s 700-page S-1 Registration form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission begins the process that will lead to the initial public offering of stock. Although no date has been given for the IPO, analysts tell Reuters it could come as early as October. There also is no word on how many shares might be offered. The company’s stakeholders — including the U.S. Treasury and possibly the United Auto Workers and the Canadian government — will sell common stock. GM also will offer Series B preferred stock.
“The amount of securities offered will be determined by market conditions and other factors at the time of the offering,” the company said.
It was not clear how much stock Uncle Sam might want to unload, and details on how much money might be raised will come as we get closer to the sale. But the Los Angeles Times cites Renaissance Capital when it says the IPO could be among the largest IPOs in American history, rivaling the deal by Visa Inc. that raised $17.9 billion in March, 2008.
The U.S. Treasury poured some $50 billion into General Motors in 2008, a bailout that gave Uncle Sam 60.8 percent of GM’s stock. The bailout included a $6.7 billion loan through the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The Treasury Department said in a statement today that it would “retain the right, at all times, to decide whether and at what level to participate in the offering.”
Things have gone well for GM this year. Beyond paying back the TARP loan in April, the company has earned $2.2 billion in the first six months of 2010. The IPO announcement came one week after GM posted a second-quarter profit of $1.6 billion, its largest in six years.
“GM is rolling again – thanks the investment and patience of the American taxpayer,” U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, told the Detroit Free Press. “I’m glad to see GM taking steps to pay that money back and putting Americans back to work.”
GM plans to trade on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under its common symbol GM.
GM, founded on Sept. 16, 1908, was once among the most widely held stocks in the country. At its height, it had more than 1 million individual investors in the early 1960s. GM hit its highest market capitalization — $52 billion — in 2000, but its investors were almost completely wiped out when the company filed for bankruptcy in June, 2009. GM exited bankruptcy 40 days later.
thank you, mr. president
anyone else going in?
Is it really an IPO if it used to be public?
Pretty awesome. It's amazing the turnaround they've been able to make. Kudos to them, and for paying us back!
Come now Marcus, it's like raising a child. You have to encourage small steps.![]()
GM IPO stock is fools gold for the stupid.
The US government has already ed GM stockholders and bondholders once.
Big labor was the winner in the bailout.
Stockholders and bondholders will get ed again next time too.
Clambake, you need to bet your life savings on the new GM.
So you wanted the stock and bond holders to be bailed out?
You are smarter than that.
I thought.
Bond holders at a minimum should have at LEAST gotten a percentage on the dollar.
That's how corporate bonds work. They are first tier in a bankruptcy/liquidation.
So you wanted them at least partially bailed out?
How do you think the system works?
Bondholders are the people that loaned them the money to do business.
They took their savings and LOANED them to GM with the promise that they would get a small return (probably 100 basic points over treasuries) in what normally was a safe investment.
In a normal scenario, GM would have gone into bankruptcy and those bondholders would have had first claim on the assets as they were liquidated.
That's not what happened. Those people who invested their savings in GM were wiped out and the UNIONS got GM.
Pure political payback.
Yeah, the bondholders should have gotten something.
50 BILLION of savings stolen.
50 BILLION of savings wiped out.
If the US government can do that, why should anyone invest in US corporate bonds?
I wouldn't have invested in GM back then.
Bad risk.
Now?
Maybe.
Back then when?
Bonds are supposed to be safe long term investments. GM was "blue chip". There are people that invested in them way back before 2000 for their retirement that got wiped out. zero. so sorry. We just changed the rules. You aren't a secured investor anymore. We just took your life savings and gave it to the UAW. They will own GM from now on.
It was a totally unprecedented ing of average investors that got no press at all.
50 ing BILLION.
Chump, I know you like to be difficult just to be adversarial but PLEASE tell me you don't think this was right...
Gotta agree with CC here. Bondholders should have gotten something back, you would think. At the least, they should be recompensed the amount of stocks they had.
I agree that it should have gone through a real bankruptcy, but I don't shed a tear for investors if they weren't smart enough to be diverse and recognize a company that was making tragically ty cars. If you believe in risk, accept it.
cc hedging his bets by walking backward. lol
The company is making profit although I would feel better if Whitacre had stayed on as CEO
From what I've read that was unsecured bond debt...so CC does want an investor bail-out when they accepted the risk for a greater return...TFB...
lmao, my tragically ty gm vehicle has 110k and has had 0 problems.
I made a nice chunk buying GM pre-bailout @ $2.31/share and selling immediately thereafter @ $5.50.
I'm interested to see what it opens at. I might be in for a little bit.
Last edited by TeyshaBlue; 08-19-2010 at 10:11 AM.
lol...I've got an old 93 S-10 extended cab. It's my weekend, run-to-Home Depot-truck, except I drove it almost everyday for about 6 months when I had a brace of Fords crap out on me. 225,000 miles. I replaced the clutch at 150,000, put 1 alternator on it, and I'm about to put a starter on it...that's it.
Ugly as , but you can't kill it.![]()
GM might be a good stock play out of the gate while traders are all abuzz about the IPO, but I don't see this as a buy and hold one. After what happened to the bondholders GM is going to have a hard time borrowing money and will have to pay significantly higher interest rates. That will be a drag on their growth prospects.
Are you justifying the govt's actions??
Is sanctioned theft which is what this really is, okay??
?????
When they did the pre-packaged deal the original shareholders were wiped out. You must have sold on one of the rumors and not the official bailout.
I don't know if this is what TB was talking about, but the shareholders were not immediately wiped out. Their shares were put in a holding company trading under GMQ (if I remember correctly). It was still trading at a high volume because some people (mistakenly) thought that the shareholders would be given shares in the new GM IPO. The SEC feared that this could cause an uproar when people "found out" (the info was already out there) that they would not make it through bankrupcy. They even changed the trading symbol to MTLQQ (Q denotes bankrupcy, they added a second Q in order to be more forceful). This is when the stock truely dropped and traded in the 0.50 range. It was full of pumpers and dumpers, but it even climbed back to around 1.50 when good news about GM would come out (all numbers are from memory so don't crucify me if I am a little off). Not saying that TB DID DO this, however this is how it COULD have happened.
I said it should have gone through a real bankruptcy. Apparently you can't read.
It is one of many possible outcomes when one risks his or her money. If you don't believe in risk and want everyone to be bailed out in every situation, fine.Is sanctioned theft which is what this really is, okay??
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