GM CEO To Announce Revisions To Viability Plan Monday
27 April 2009 - 3:03AM
Dow Jones News
General Motors Corp. (GM) Chief Executive Fritz Henderson will
announce revisions to the auto maker's viability plan on Monday, an
update that comes as the company readies a debt swap offer for
unsecured bondholders.
Henderson and other top executives are expected to disclose
moves to accelerate cost-cutting, including further changes to GM's
brands and details of plans to close more factories.
The company faces a June 1 deadline to restructure or file for
bankruptcy after the Obama administration shot down the company's
Feb. 17 viability plan as insufficient.
GM has since been racing to cut "deeper and faster" and cut
deals with bond holders and the United Auto Workers to slash the
company's debt. GM owes $27 billion in unsecured debt.
And the company owes the UAW $20 billion for a union-run trust
fund to cover retiree medical care.
Last week, sources said GM was planning to shed its money losing
Pontiac brand as part of accelerated restructuring.
The company is surviving on $15.5 billion in federal loans,
after disclosing late last year the company could no longer survive
on its own after years of losses and economic turmoil that sent
auto sales skidding and cut off access to credit.
GM had been aiming to launch the debt swap by Monday so it would
be complete by June 1, when a $1 billion debt payment comes due. GM
last week said it didn't plan on making the payment. If the debt
exchange is not complete by then, the company would be in Chapter
11, Chief Financial Officer Ray Young said last week to the Wall
Street Journal.
Henderson will be joined on Monday at 9 a.m. by Young; Troy
Clarke, group vice president and president, GM North America; and
Mark LaNeve, GM vice president, vehicles sales, servicing and
marketing.
-By Sharon Terlep, Dow Jones Newswires; 248-204-5532;
sharon.terlep@dowjones.com