Government Begins Selling GM Stake

WASHINGTON (WWJ) - The treasury department confirms that it's started selling its remaining 300 million shares of General Motors stock.

A report filed Monday said that the government sold $156.4 million worth of GM stock in January. That works out to about 5.4 million shares, based on the average share price that month. That's roughly two percent of the government's GM stake at the beginning of the year.

The government has said that it wants to sell its remaining stake in General Motors slowly, as not to flood the market with GM stock, and lower the price. The goal is to have the full taxpayer stake in GM sold by early 2014.

According to the report, GM has now recovered about $29 billion of its $49.5 billion in assistance to General Motors. The treasury has said it expects to lose money on the auto industry bailout.

The Treasury department last month hired J.P. Morgan securities ad CitiGroup Global Markets to sell the its GM stake.

When GM stock first returned to the market in 2010, it had a share price in the $33 range. As of mid-day trading on Monday, it was $26.63 a share. It would need to be in the $70 a share range for the government to break even.

Meanwhile, GM is not commenting on a Detroit News Report that the company is looking at moving CEO Dan Akerson's pay up to 11.1 million dollars. He earned nine million last year. Most of that compensation is in stock.

The number comes from documents presented to a congressional committee. Those documents also reportedly say GM is looking to give raises to 18 of its top 25 executives.

Until the government sells off its GM stake, top company executives are under pay restrictions.