Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Wall Street Journal: GM Stock Is Priced at $33

Rush had this to say about the GM news today (see below) and I guess I'm missing something because I don't see the problem. It looks like the government is giving control of the company back to the company guys, and the sale of stock is going very well. The government is going to get 60% of the money raised - and I guess the idea is that the government wont' give that money back to the taxpayer or lower anyone's taxes. That's probably what he means....
RUSH: I'm getting e-mail, text messages from people who should know better, who are acting all shocked and outraged over the General Motors IPO and how the taxpayers aren't gonna get paid back, they're never gonna see anything of what they lent General Motors. I read this stuff and I'm incredulous. Did they think otherwise? How many of you thought the taxpayers were gonna get paid back? And, by the way, what does that even mean? The taxpayers being paid back? You gonna get a check? Are we gonna get a check from General Motors paying back what we so-called lent them? I still have a lot of work to do. I know we have a lot of people on our side who are imbued with the personality characteristic of wanting to assign to people the best of intentions. But these are liberals, for crying out loud, it's essentially, you know, the Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise disguised as a political party. We know what the GM bailout, Chrysler bailout was. It's to give the unions ownership to protect their health care benefits. The true investors in Chrysler, for example, got hosed. And Obama told 'em they were being childish.

Taxpayers being paid back, and certain people are not gonna be allowed to get into the IPO, and the IPO share price is false and inflated -- of course it is! It's an insider's game. Sometimes I'm shocked. Sometimes I actually think I'm the only smart guy left. That is not the way to put it. I'm the only guy not susceptible to the fact that they might be doing something right, they might be doing something for the good of the country, they might actually have best intentions. I do feel like a lone wolf, like it's a waste of time to even reply to this stuff. But I do because I, ladies and gentlemen, am a nice guy. All of this, this bipartisanship, this working together, it's all phony. The question should always be, "What do the American people want?" Obama didn't care what the American people want when it comes to health care or anything else, cap and trade, doesn't care about that. This party, this administration, regime, has been governing against the will of the people from the moment it was immaculated. Obama, Emanuel, they didn't care what the American people wanted. In fact, it's in spite of the American people this stuff gets done. I mean you, we, the people, we are obstacles just as much as the Democrats are.


GM Stock Is Priced at $33
General Motors Co. priced its historic initial public offering at $33 per share, raising $20.1 billion in common and preferred stock in one of the largest U.S. stock offerings, according to people familiar with the deal.

..After the market closed Wednesday, Wall Street underwriters set the price on 478 million common shares, with another 71.7 million expected to be sold if bankers exercise an overallotment option known as the green shoe.

The underwriters also boosted the size of a planned preferred stock offering to $4.4 billion, which could also be increased in the green shoe by another $650 million. If the decision is made in the next few days to exercise both overallotments, the deal could raise a total of $23.1 billion.

The deal grew in size over the past few weeks, driven by better-than-expected demand from U.S. mutual funds, according one person familiar with the deal.

Proceeds from the sale largely will go to the U.S. government, which owns 61% of GM after restructuring the car maker last year in bankruptcy court.

The auto maker has returned $9.5 billion of the $49.5 billion the U.S. spent to rescue GM last year. The Obama administration will seek to recoup the rest through the sale of stock over the next couple of years.

Dennis Berman and Simon Constable discuss how GM's underwriters achieved a high opening price for GM's IPO, an effort that will help to return billions of dollars of taxpayer bailout money to the U.S. Treasury.

.The U.S. Treasury, which has kept close tabs GM's operations since bailing out the auto maker last year, will reduce its oversight role after initial public offering on Thursday, people familiar with the matter said.

GM will continue briefings with Obama administration officials but will operate with less involvement with the government now that the U.S. Treasury's key job of executing the IPO has ended.

For more than a year, GM executives, including its CEOs, have briefed administration officials on the company's operations about every other week. Those meetings will continue but take place less frequently after the government's stake is reduced in the IPO, people familiar with the matter said.

Treasury hasn't driven decisions on GM's operations or strategy since the company emerged from bankruptcy, people familiar with the situation say. The Obama administration was more hands on when GM was in the restructuring process, but has vowed to stay out of the company's affairs since it emerged from bankruptcy last summer.

The government's rescue of GM has been a burden for the company in the market place because many consumers dislike the bailout. Some continue to view the company as "government motors." Some investors, meantime, have shied away from owning a company they think could face interference from the government

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GM IPO Offers Banks a Step on the Road to Redemption Access thousands of business sources not available on the free web. Learn More Meantime, Chinese auto maker SAIC Motor Corp. is awaiting Chinese government approval for its plan to buy about $500 million in shares as part of the IPO. That would give the Chinese company close to a 1% stake in GM.

SAIC is GM's main partner in making vehicles in China, which is now the largest market for GM cars and trucks.

The issue of foreign investors buying GM shares in the company's IPO is a thorny one for the U.S. Treasury, which worried about the political reaction if non-U.S. investors were allowed to acquire a significant stake in GM.

Some on Wall Street are concerned that GM and its banks may be overreaching, and that may crimp how much the stock rises in its first day of trading Thursday. Ordinarily, underwriters don't mind if a new stock issue rises 25% or more on its first day of trading, because the potential for such gains encourages money managers to buy shares.

But in the GM IPO, the underwriters are dealing with an unusual client: the U.S. Treasury. The government seeks to maximize how much it raises from the sale as it attempts to be paid back for its bailout.

The underwriters are targeting a first-day price gain of 10% to 20%, people familiar with their thinking said. If GM shares rise more than 20%, taxpayers might view it as a Wall Street giveaway to select investors

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