GMAC to get $5B of rescue package

GM is losing more control of its financing arm.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department said it will provide $5 billion to GMAC Financial Services LLC, the ailing financing arm of General Motors Corp., in a move that’s expected to stave off a bankruptcy protection filing at the company but also severely limit GM’s control over it.

In exchange for the slice of the $700 billion bank rescue package, the government will receive preferred shares that pay an 8 percent dividend and warrants to purchase additional shares in return for the money, the department said.

Treasury also said it will lend up to $1 billion to General Motors so that the company can purchase additional equity that GMAC is planning to offer as part of its effort to raise more capital.

The government aid is also expected to provide a needed boost to domestic auto sales by freeing up more credit for consumers. GMAC said Tuesday that it would immediately resume lending to certain customers it had previously said were too great a risk for auto loans as a result of the tight credit markets.

The assistance is part of a larger government effort to aid the auto industry and is on top of the $17.4 billion in loans the Bush administration agreed to provide to the industry Dec. 19, a Treasury Department official said.

Analysts had speculated that if GMAC didn’t obtain financial help it would have to file for bankruptcy protection or shut down, which would be a serious blow to GM’s own chances for survival.

Last week, the Federal Reserve approved GMAC’s application to become a bank holding company, which made it eligible to receive money from the financial rescue fund. The Fed’s approval was contingent on GMAC raising additional capital.

JPMorgan’s Himanshu Patel said the moves show how Treasury is taking a comprehensive look at GM’s entire business and make a bankruptcy protection filing and liquidation extremely unlikely.

But at the same time, the automaker is losing control of the financing business, which may or may not have positive results down the road.

“GM is now on a path to become the first global carmaker to have no influence/control over a captive auto finance company — this may prove a disadvantage to GM sales or, if not, it may prompt other [original equipment manufacturers] to follow,” Patel wrote in a note to investors.

The analyst said that the moves could allow GMAC to pickup market share in the long term, or may even eventually spur a public offering.

Separately, GMAC said Monday that it has accepted all the bonds tendered in a debt-for-equity swap that was also part of its capital-raising efforts. The company released few details about the results of the swap, but said that the conditions of the offers had been satisfied.

The company’s goal is to reach $30 billion in capital, the majority of which would come from the debt-for-equity exchange. GMAC has struggled to get bondholders to convert 75 percent of their debt into equity of the company and has yet to say whether it has met its goal.

GM owns 49 percent of GMAC, while the rest is owned by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.

As part of its order last week approving GMAC’s application for bank holding company status, the Federal Reserve said GM will reduce its stake to less than 10 percent of the voting and total equity interest of GMAC. Cerberus, which led an investment group that bought a 51 percent stake in GMAC from the automaker for $14 billion in 2006, will reduce its stake in GMAC to no more than 33 percent of total equity.