Government of Canada Sells General Motor Shares

On September 13, the Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, confirmed reports that the Canada GEN Investment Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Canada Development Investment Corporation, sold 30 million common stock General Motors (GM) shares to BofA Merill Lynch and RBC Capital Markets in an unregistered block trade. 

In a statement released on September 10, the Honourable Jim Flaherty said “we do not believe that any government should be a shareholder of a private corporation for an indefinite period of time. The Government of Canada is committed to exiting from ownership of GM as quickly as feasible, while maximizing the return for Canadian taxpayers, as we demonstrated today.” After this sale, Canada GEN holds 110,084,746 shares of GM common stock and 16,101,695 shares of GM Series A Preferred Stock.

Canada’s automotive industry has recovered very well since 2009 when the Government purchased the majority of its shares. Tens of thousands of jobs were at risk when the Government decided to take action, promising that this was only a temporary arrangement.

DesRosiers Automotive Consultants has released data showing that car sales in Canada hit a record high in August of this year; a total of 159,004 new vehicles were sold last month, which surpasses the previous record of 158,394 units for the same month in 2007.