Before General Motors sold its controlling stake of GMAC (now Ally Financial) to Cerberus, the company’s captive finance arm was among its largest profit centers. But as the company’s debt piled up, it sold off the lion’s share of GMAC to keep collectors at bay. But almost as fast as that happened, the auto industry and the global economy took a dive, and GMAC began to reject most every loan The General threw its way.
Fast forward to 2011, and GM has announced the sale of its $1 billion worth of Class A shares of Ally. The sale of the company’s outstanding shares will allow the automaker to claim an additional $300 million profit for the first quarter of 2011. Chief financial officer Chris Liddell says that the automaker is “taking another step forward in our strategy to strengthen and simplify the company’s balance sheet.”
Even with GM’s announced preferred stock sale, the automaker will still own 9.9 percent of Ally’s common shares.
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