Translated material
Publicly the largest
General Motors held a $20.1 billion IPO
The American automaker General Motors (GM), which went bankrupt during the crisis and came under state control, held the largest IPO in US history, placing ordinary and preferred shares worth $20.1 billion on the New York stock exchange at the upper limit of the price corridor - $33 . per piece. Taking into account options to sell shares during oversubscription, the volume of funds raised could reach $23.1 billion, Bloomberg reported yesterday. In this case, the concern's IPO will become the largest placement not only in the United States, but also in the world (so far the record belongs to the Agricultural Bank of China, which managed to raise $22.1 billion in 2006). The listing of GM shares on the New York Stock Exchange began yesterday, and the securities will also be traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.“The IPO of General Motors was an important turning point in the fate of not only the iconic company, but the entire American auto industry,” said US President Barack Obama, who previously actively supported the company. During the subscription, demand for shares exceeded supply 7 times, so GM increased the price range from 26--29 to 32--33 dollars per share. The volume of supply of common shares was increased from 365 to 478 million shares, and the volume of placement of preferred securities - from 3 to 4 billion dollars. The main sellers of shares were the US Treasury and the United Auto Wokers (UAW) trade union. The buyers have not yet been disclosed; according to Bloomberg, they are mainly American collective investment funds. Foreign investors bought only about 10% of the automaker's shares. In addition, sources claim that the Canadian government pension fund will also be one of the influential investors. Earlier it was reported that the Kuwaiti investment agency and the Chinese automaker SAIC could buy approximately 1% of GM shares.
As a result of the IPO, the share of the American government, the main shareholder of the automaker, will be reduced from 61 to 37% (or to 33% taking into account the oversubscription option), and the trade union - from 20 to 14% (to 13% if the option is exercised). As you know, it was the state that helped the concern survive by allocating it $50 billion in exchange for 60% of the shares. GM will have to return these funds. For now, the US government will receive only a quarter of this amount of money. True, GM had already returned $6.7 billion to the state.