4:51 PM
GM IPO raises $20.1 billion
Addison Ray
By Clare Baldwin and Soyoung Kim
NEW YORK | Wed Nov 17, 2010 7:45pm EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors Co GM.UL pulled off the biggest initial public offering in U.S. history on Wednesday, raising $20.1 billion after pricing shares at the top of the proposed range in response to huge investor demand.
GM sold 478 million common shares at $33 each, raising $15.77 billion, as well as $4.35 billion in preferred shares, more than the initially planned $4 billion.
Including an option that would allow underwriters to sell more shares, expected to be exercised in coming days, GM looks set to raise $23.1 billion -- the biggest initial public offering ever.
The strong response to the stock sale reflects growing investor confidence that GM is moving beyond its unpopular, taxpayer-funded bankruptcy in June 2009 with sharply lower costs and higher profit potential.
The U.S. government's stake in GM will drop to about 33 percent from 61 percent if all available shares are sold.
The stock will begin trading on Thursday on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges.
The success of the IPO is good news for the Obama administration, which faced criticism for bailing out GM, and will help the automaker shed its "Government Motors" label.
Auto industry executives and analysts said the reversal in Wall Street sentiment toward GM pointed to renewed confidence in an industry that was hit hard by the credit crisis of 2008.
That is a positive sign for a range of auto-related companies, including Chrysler, that are looking to tap the credit and equity markets in coming months, analysts said.
"You're not in GM for a three-month investment," Tim Leuliette, a director at auto parts maker Visteon Corp, (VSTO.OB) said at the Reuters Autos Summit.
"You're into GM because a critical element, a critical building block of the U.S. economy, has significantly repositioned itself to be competitive.
FROM BLUE-CHIP TO BAILOUT
The stock sale represents a big step toward taxpayers recouping the U.S. government's $50 billion rescue of the 102-year-old company, which had fallen from blue-chip status to bailout basket case in recent years.
GM earned $5 billion in the first nine months of 2010 and is on track for its first full-year profit since 2004. Earnings will accelerate if U.S. auto sales continue to creep back up toward the 15-million or 16-million vehicle-per-year sales rates the U.S. industry last saw in 2007, analysts say.
Sales plunged to 10.4 million vehicles in 2009 and have staged a slow recovery to near 11.5 million this year.
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