General Motors Corp.’s bankruptcy filing today listed State Street Bank & Trust as the company’s largest stockholder, with 17% of the stock.
But a 13G filing with the SEC shows State Street sold 73% of the stock holding in April, leaving it with 4.4% of outstanding shares as of April 30.
State Street sold the shares of GM stock on behalf of GM’s salaried employees’ 401(k) plan and hourly employees’ 401(k) plan, said Arlene Roberts, State Street spokeswoman. State Street Bank and Trust is investment manager and independent fiduciary of the company stock fund for both plans.
State Street held 99 million GM shares, amounting to 16% of the company stock, as of March 31, according to its 13F filing. But the April 30 13G filing showed that State Street held 26.6 million shares, or 4.4% of GM stock.
Ms. Roberts couldn’t confirm for whom State Street holds the remaining GM shares.
GM’s bankruptcy filing, in U.S. District Bankruptcy Court in New York, lists no other holder owning at least 5% of the company.
Promark Global Advisors Inc., GM’s investment management unit, is not part of the bankruptcy proceeding. Promark managed $132.2 billion in assets for 30 employee benefit plans, foundations, insurance companies and other institutional clients as of Dec. 31. About $112 billion comes from GM-affiliated clients, including the GM U.S. hourly and salaried pension funds, which have a combined $84.5 billion. Promark’s other assets come from external clients not affiliated with GM. All of the assets are as of Dec. 31, according to Promark and GM.
GM spokeswoman Julie Gibson couldn’t be reached for comment.
GM is the smallest company in the S&P 500, with a market value of $547 million as of early today, according to David R. Guarino, manager of global index communications.
Late Monday, S&P announced that it will remove GM from the S&P 500 index after the close of trading Tuesday. S&P is removing GM because of the automaker's Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing today.
DeVry Inc. will replace GM in the index on June 8.
GM is also being pulled from the Dow Jones industrial average, effective before the opening of New York trading on June 8, according to Dow Jones & Co., which publishes the market measure.
