General Motors has announced it has commenced a public share offering. The IPO is a key part of plans to repay the US government’s US$50m bailout for the then bankrupt company in 2009.
Analysts immediately suggested that the US government has put pressure on GM to go public as soon as possible.
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“If GM can’t sustain its current sales momentum, share value post-IPO will plummet,” said Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl.
“It would have been more advantageous had GM had logged more solid quarterly earnings like this one before it went public but there’s a push by GM and from other places – including the federal government – to have GM go public and get the government out of its business,” said Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Michelle Krebs.
“My hunch is that GM’s Chinese partner SAIC is going to buy a stake in the new GM. The negotiation of the partners’ tech deal was curiously timed.”
The offering will consist of 365 million shares of common stock to be sold by certain of its stockholders. The company will also issue 60 million shares of its Series B mandatory convertible junior preferred stock with a liquidation amount of US$50 per share.
GM says that the estimated price range for the offering of common stock is US$26.00 to US$29.00 per share
Unless converted earlier at the option of the holder, each share of the Series B preferred stock will automatically convert on the mandatory conversion date, which is expected to be three years from the original issue date. The conversion provisions depend on the applicable market value of the company’s common stock, and are subject to certain anti-dilution adjustments.
The underwriters have the option to purchase from the selling stockholders up to an additional 54.75 million shares of common stock and from the company an additional 9 million shares of Series B preferred stock, on the same terms and conditions, to cover over-allotments, if any.
Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan (representatives of the underwriters), BofA Merrill Lynch, Citi, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities and RBC Capital Markets will be the joint book-running managers for the offering. Copies of the preliminary prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained for free, by visiting the SEC website at http://www.sec.gov.
