WASHINGTON, D.C. and DETROIT -
General Motors has officially finished buying back all of  the GM preferred stock that the U.S. Treasury owned as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the government and the automaker announced.
The automaker repurchased 84 million shares of its stock for a combined total of $2.1 billion. The $25.50 paid for each share was 2 percent higher than the liquidation value, officials noted.
GM and the Treasury had agreed to the TARP preferred shares repurchase back in October.
The TARP repurchase brings the amount GM has returned to Treasury (post-bankruptcy) to $23.1 billion, a sum that includes net IPO proceeds of $13.5  billion, a debt repayment of $6.7 billion, a preferred stock repurchase totaling $2.1 billion and $800 million in interest and dividends.
“Temporary support through TARP to General Motors during the financial crisis was essential to preventing a devastating collapse of the American auto industry and saving more than 1 million American jobs,” stated Tim Massad, acting assistant secretary for Financial Stability.
“The fact that the auto industry has created tens of thousands of jobs since GM emerged from bankruptcy and that Ford, GM, and Chrysler are all operating at a profit for the first time in six years is further evidence that the decision to provide support was the right one,” Massad added.
The Treasury said it has invested $49.5 billion in GM. Of that amount, $13.4 billion was from before January 2009 and $36.1 billion was after January 2009.
Today, the Treasury now owns just over 500 million shares of GM common stock.
In a statement released Wednesday announcing the TARP preferred share repurchase, GM noted: “As previously announced, the company plans to record a charge of approximately $0.7 billion to net income attributable to common stockholders for the difference between the purchase price and the recorded value of the Series A Preferred Stock under fresh-start accounting. 
“GM will provide an update of its balance sheet, including current assets, liabilities, pension funding status and post-IPO ownership structure when it files its 2010 Form 10-K in early 2011,” the automaker added.