Tomorrow, General Motors is supposed to announce its plan for repayment of government bailout loans, something they have been promising for months. As this USA Today article explains, the recovering auto manufacturer still owes money to the U.S government as well as the Canadian government, in the amount of $5.8 billion.
CEO Ed Whitacre is set to announce the payment at GM's plant in Fairfax, Kansas assembly plant. He'll then fly off to Washington to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Michigan's Congressional delegation, The Detroit Free Press says.
Anyone who takes the repayment as a sign that business is completely back on track may want to pause before taking a victory lap.
The $4.7 billion check going to the U.S. Treasury and the $1.1 billion check going to the Canadian governments comes directly out of an escrow fund the two governments set up for the automaker when it was coming out of bankruptcy. The automaker was required to pay back that money by June.
And repaying the loans doesn't mean the automaker is free from government ownership: The U.S. still has a 60.1% stake in GM.
