GM to repay $6.7 billion in government loans

General Motors will repay its $6.7 billion in taxpayer-funded loans by the end of June 2010, the company's new chief executive said today.

Ed Whitacre, who unexpectedly replaced chief executive Fritz Henderson in a boardroom ouster last month, said GM will pay back the loan quarterly, beginning with $1.2 billion this month.

GM got a total of $52 billion in taxpayer money, but most of that was converted into GM equity during the government-backed bankruptcy, giving you, the taxpayer, a 61 percent stake in the company.

The only way you get the rest of your money back is when GM launches an IPO and becomes publicly traded again, and there's no timetable for that.

GM is looking for a replacement for Henderson, said Whiteacre, who took over for the ousted Henderson because he was not moving fast enough to change GM, the board believed. Whitacre said the government restrictions on executive pay placed on GM are making the search difficult.

Here's a piece I wrote one week before Henderson was pushed out, noting that the New GM was looking a lot like the Old GM, because the company had been unable to sell off the brands it was looking to unload.

-- Frank Ahrens
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