GM Bankruptcy Plan Said to Speed Up as Board Seeks Savings Goal

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By Jeff Green

April 7 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. is speeding up preparations for a possible bankruptcy filing even as directors scout for deeper savings this week to avoid that outcome, people familiar with the plans said.

GM would focus on forming a new company from its best assets if court protection is needed, said the people, who asked not to be named because the details aren’t public. The efforts to set a new cost-cut goal center on how to go beyond a proposal to slash debt by 46 percent and shed 47,000 jobs in 2009, and will include talks with Treasury officials, the people said.

The moves are a response to President Barack Obama’s March 30 rejection of GM’s bid to keep $13.4 billion in federal loans. With bondholders and the United Auto Workers balking at concessions, a push for more savings makes bankruptcy more “probable,” Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson has said.

“The best outcome is for an arrangement outside of bankruptcy, but that will be very difficult,” said Dennis Virag, president of Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “A bankruptcy of a company the size and complexity of GM is not simple, and it’s probably going to get ugly.”

GM’s board met yesterday and April 5, and more discussions are planned inside the company and with the Obama administration after the biggest U.S. automaker was given 60 days to restructure without a specific savings target, the people said. New Chairman Kent Kresa said beforehand the agenda would be “extensive.”

Ratcheting Up

Planning for a court filing was ratcheted up in February as a precaution against a defeat for GM’s bid to keep its U.S. loans, the people said. Detroit-based GM said it prefers to restructure outside bankruptcy court after $82 billion in losses since 2004.

The preparations include looking at a so-called 363 sale, a reference to a section of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy code that would help create a new automaker from the assets and brands of GM, boosting the company’s survival chances, the people said.

A GM spokesman, Greg Martin, declined to comment on any meetings this week involving the automaker, the Treasury Department or Obama’s auto task force.

“As we have from the very start, we’re going to continue to work closely with the task force on our restructuring plans,” Martin said yesterday in an interview.

A Treasury spokeswoman, Jenni Engebretsen, didn’t respond to an e-mail message for comment.

Bondholders, UAW

GM has $62 billion in debt, and its Feb. 17 presentation to Treasury envisioned shrinking that sum to $33.5 billion by trimming obligations to a union-retiree health fund and getting bondholders to accept less in an equity swap.

Until new savings requirements are hashed out, substantive talks with the UAW and bondholders may be delayed, the people said. The board meetings and feedback from the Treasury’s auto task force may create a framework for new discussions this week, they said.

Chief Financial Officer Ray Young was among executives who met with U.S. Treasury officials on April 3 before the board meeting. Additional meetings with Treasury officials are set for this week to review the new restructuring proposals, one person said, without giving a schedule.

GM gained 17 cents, or 8.1 percent, to $2.27 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading for a third straight advance.

‘Go Further’

Henderson said last week that the Treasury hadn’t given GM new cost-cutting guidelines. On April 5, he told CNN’s “State of the Union” on April 5 that GM needs to “go further” to find savings.

While reiterating his view that bankruptcy isn’t inevitable, he also told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “it would only be prudent” to be prepared for all contingencies. Henderson, 50, was named to succeed CEO Rick Wagoner after he stepped down at the request of the Obama administration, and Kresa, then a director, took on Wagoner’s chairman role.

GM said it will save about $1.1 billion with a new UAW agreement that cuts benefits related to job losses and streamlines factory work rules and announced that 7,000 union workers will retire early or take a buyout.

One clue to the depth of GM’s additional required savings may have come from John F. Smith, group vice president for product planning. He told reporters last week that GM may have to trim expenses so it can break even when U.S. vehicle sales are as low as 10 million to 10.5 million units.

The automaker’s previous break-even goal was at an industrywide rate of 11.5 million to 12 million cars and light trucks. Deliveries in March ran at an annual rate 9.86 million vehicles.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan, at jgreen16@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: April 7, 2009 00:01 EDT http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/ne ... 3oK0&refer=home