DETROIT -
General Motors said Friday that it has finished pumping about $2 billion of its common stock into the automaker’s hourly and salaried U.S. pension plans.

GM announced back in October it would be making the voluntary stock contribution and giving $4 billion to the plans. The automaker contributed cash prior to giving the stock shares to the pension funds.

The stock contribution consisted of 60.6 million shares, 40.4 million of which went to the hourly plan with the remainder going to the salaried plans.
“We continue to take the steps necessary to lower our risk profile, so our focus can be on designing, building and selling the world’s best vehicles,” said GM vice chairman and chief financial officer Chris Liddell.
These shares automatically are eligible to be a plan asset for funding purposes. Officials said they will be allowed to be counted as a plan asset for accounting purposes as soon as certain transfer restrictions are taken away. This should happen in the near term, according to GM.
The final day of 2009 was the most recent time the U.S. pension plans were remeasured together. The automaker noted that, all told, they were underfunded by $17.1 billion.
About 688,000 participants receive benefits from the U.S. pension plans.