DETROIT -

Spokespersons from both Ally Financial and General Motors didn’t offer specifics on Wednesday in reaction to a report that the automaker is planning to sell off its remaining stake in the vehicle finance company.

A host of media outlets cited a report by the Wall Street Journal  that quoted anonymous sources who said GM intends to sell its stake in Ally in what the report described as a private placement deal.

One of the individuals told the WSJ that the deal is worth around $900 million.

When contacted by SubPrime Auto Finance News, the sister publication to Auto Remarketing, both Tom Henderson of GM and Brenda Rios of Ally decline to share any specific reaction to the report.

“We have no comment on this,” Rios said.

“We are not commenting on these reports,” Henderson added.

The development arrives two weeks after Ally said it has now repaid more than 70 percent of the investment the U.S. Treasury made in the company.

On Nov. 20, Ally completed a private placement of 216,667 shares of Ally common stock for an aggregate price of roughly $1.3 billion, and said it also completed the repurchase of all outstanding shares of the Mandatorily Convertible Preferred securities held by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and eliminated the share adjustment provision.

All told, this results in a payment of $5.9 billion to the U.S. Treasury from Ally.

The U.S. Treasury’s share of the common equity in Ally has been cut from 74 percent to about 64 percent.  The remainder is held by various existing and new institutional investors.

“Completion of these transactions marks key milestones for Ally,” chief executive officer Michael Carpenter said at the time of that particular announcement.  “With the $5.9 billion payment, Ally has returned more than 70 percent of the investment to the U.S. taxpayer, as well as achieved a more normalized capital structure.

“The strategic transformation is nearly complete and, looking ahead, we will be focused on taking steps to further improve profitability, maintain strong core auto finance and direct banking franchises and fully exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program,” Carpenter added.

Officials not only cheered the latest funds that ended up back at the Treasury from Ally, but they reiterated the value of the moves made to stabilize GM, Chrysler and much of the auto industry. Timothy Bowler is the deputy assistant secretary for the Treasury’s Office of Financial Stability.

“While it’s important that we recover the taxpayers’ investments in these companies, it’s even more important to remember why this assistance was provided in the first place,” Bowler wrote in a post on the Treasury’s blog. “The Obama administration provided financial assistance to the auto industry to protect the broader economy and the American people from the incredible pain that could have occurred if it had collapsed. In fact, more than 340,000 jobs have been created since June 2009 when GM and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy. All of GM, Ford and Chrysler are now profitable.

“Taxpayers are now in a stronger position to maximize the value of their remaining investment in Ally,” Bowler continued. “As with all of our investments, Treasury’s objective is to balance the speed of the recovery with maximizing returns for the taxpayers. Going forward, Treasury will work with Ally on a public offering or private sale of its common shares or sales of assets to complete its exit. 

“There is still considerable work to be done, but Ally’s latest repayment is another reminder that the decision to provide assistance to the auto industry helped the economy recover from the financial crisis and enabled the auto industry to come roaring back,” he went on to state.

GM More Appealing to Investors

At the same time the report of GM selling off its Ally interests surfaced, another online feature from Bloomberg highlighted how at least one high-end hedge fund is quite upbeat about the domestic automaker.

An individual familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that Hayman Capital Management has taken a stake in GM.

Hayman Capital officials contend the OEM is positioned to rise in value as the U.S. government winds down its ownership stake.

According to its website, Dallas-based Hayman Capital manages assets for institutional investors (including corporations, foundations, endowments and pensions), funds of hedge funds, family offices and high-net-worth individuals. The minimum investment with Hayman Capital — which was founded by Kyle Bass in December 2005 — is $5 million.

Bloomberg recapped that Treasury officials indicated last month that the government plans to sell its remaining 31.1 million GM common shares by year-end, depending on market conditions.

The largest U.S. automaker should increase in value by more than 40 percent in 12 to 18 months, Hayman Capital said in a presentation obtained by Bloomberg.

The GM stake is one of the fund’s largest investments, said the person, who asked not to be identified in the Bloomberg report because the matter is private.

“GM equity represents one of the most compelling risk/reward situations of any large cap in the world today,” Bass said in the presentation. “Detroit is back. And GM could lead the way forward on the equity front.”

Bloomberg pointed out that Bass is known for his noteworthy prediction against subprime home mortgages before the financial crisis.

Bass contends the U.S. exit as a trigger for GM’s stock, according to Bloomberg’s report.

“The U.S. government will be out of the way before the end of the year,” Bass told Bloomberg in a telephone interview. “They’ve been a source of constant selling pressure in the equity this year.”

Nick Zulovich can be reached at nzulovich@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.