General Motors Corp. defined contribution plans sold all their GM stock, according to an SEC filing.
The sale started March 31 and was completed Friday by State Street Bank and Trust, investment manager and independent fiduciary of the company stock fund for both the GM salaried employees’ 401(k) plan and hourly employees’ 401(k) plan.
The GM plans had 75 million shares of GM stock as of Dec. 31, said Julie Gibson, GM spokeswoman. A more recent figure wasn’t available. Those shares would have been worth $126.7 million based on last Friday’s closing price.
The stock was sold because of “a serious question concerning (GM’s) short–term viability as a going concern without resorting to bankruptcy proceedings, or (because) there is no possibility in the short-term of recouping any substantial proceeds from the sale of stock in bankruptcy proceedings,” the filing said, citing a letter to plan participants from State Street Bank.
The two plans had combined assets of $20.3 billion, including $1.4 billion in GM stock, as of Dec. 31, 2007, according to its latest 11-K, filed last June. More recent figures for the plans’ total assets were unavailable, Ms. Gibson said.
The GM stock fund will be discontinued as an investment option as of May 29, the filing said. “The only remaining assets in the GM Common Stock Fund will be cash and cash equivalents,” the filing said.
The filing didn’t state how much in GM stock was sold or how much in cash and cash equivalents remain in the GM stock fund. Participants who don’t elect to move their proceeds from the GM stock sale to other funds in their respective 401(k) plans will be moved into the Pyramis Strategic Balanced Commingled Pool investment option for salaried plan participants and into the Pyramis Active Lifecycle Commingled Pool investment option for hourly plan participants, the filing said. Total assets in the two Pyramis funds was unavailable, Ms. Gibson said.
