A recently posted Bloomberg report says that the Canadian government has made its intentions clear regarding its continued involvement with General Motors. It is now looking for interested parties who would want buy its stake in the American automotive giant. They currently hold 140 million common shares, which equate to a 10 percent stake valued at $5.1 (€3.84) billion.
This makes them the third-largest shareholder, yet apparently, they have already contacted investment banks and taken steps to cease the deal as quickly as possible.
A spokeswoman for the country’s Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Kathleen Perchaluk, recently stated via an email that “the government of Canada remains committed to exiting from ownership of GM as quickly as feasible, while maximizing the value of the government’s interests for Canadian taxpayers.”
At the other end of the line, GM did not seem particularly distressed by the news, commenting through one of its spokesmen, Tom Henderson, that “Like any shareholder, it is their decision on when to sell their shares in our company.” It seems that most of those involved want to shed their GM stake as quickly as possible, including the US Treasury and the UAW union’s GM retiree health-care trust, and the company seems more than happy to buy all of it back.
By Andrei Nedelea
PHOTO GALLERY
