GM will buy back $2.1 billion in stock from Treasury

After GM completes the purchase of the preferred stock, taxpayers will have received a total of $9.5 billion — through loan repayments, interest charges and dividends — of the $49.5 billion received from the government through since the company emerged from bankruptcy in July 2009, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

While Treasury has said it wants to quickly sell off its stake in the company, officials also have reiterated that they want to recoup as much of the nearly $50 billion that GM was loaned. The government is planning a series of sales over potentially several years.

GM received $13.4 billion from the George W. Bush administration through the Troubled Asset Relief Program and $36.1 billion from the Obama administration. 

Along with the agreement with Treasury, GM also announced today that it will contribute at least $6 billion to its pension plans and pay down $2.8 billion in debt to the United Automobile Workers union’s health care trust, to prepare for the IPO. 

The Detroit-based automaker also has completed negotiations with banks on a $5 billion revolving credit line that would serve as a backup source of liquidity. 

“These actions will bring down our leverage by $11 billion by reducing debt and improving our pension funding position,” Chris Liddell, GM’s vice chairman and chief financial officer, said in a statement.