General Motors Co. plans to pay all of its $6.7 billion in government loans by the end of June, Chairman and Chief Executive Edward Whitacre said Tuesday.
The automaker plans to make quarterly installments starting this month with a $1.2 billion payment, Whitacre said.
He said GM could repay the loan sooner, but that hasn’t been decided.
GM has received more than $50 billion total in aid from the government as it navigated bankruptcy protection this year.
Of that, $45.3 billion was converted into equity, giving the government a 61 percent stake in the Detroit-based automaker.
Whitacre said GM has no timetable yet for an initial public offering of stock, which would be necessary for the government to recoup the rest of its investment in the company. He made the remarks during a round-table discussion with journalists in Detroit.
In addition, Whitacre said, if Dutch luxury car maker Spyker doesn’t buy the Saab brand, General Motors will let it die a quiet death by Dec. 31. “Saab is just about done,” he said.
Meanwhile, Whitacre said the government’s pay restrictions on what GM can pay top executives “absolutely” makes finding a new CEO more difficult.
“Of course it has an impact,” he said.
Whitacre said GM has been having “ongoing conversations” with the government’s pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, who sets top salaries at companies that have received federal aid, about the issue.
But Whitacre told reporters the restrictions won’t prevent GM from hiring a candidate it wants.
“It’s about compensation, but it’s also about a desire to lead the company,” Whitacre said.
Whitacre, who was named GM’s chairman this summer, took on the executive duties on Dec. 1, replacing longtime GM executive Fritz Henderson.
“We’re looking for somebody who can be a leader of this company,” Whitacre said. “It doesn’t have to be an existing CEO.”
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He said GM’s board will search inside and outside the company for a replacement.
He noted that experience in the auto industry “would be nice but not a requirement.” Whitacre also said he’d also like the next CEO to be a motivating and inspirational leader.
There is not a list of candidates at this point, he said. “We’ve been looking like about a week now,” Whitacre said.
Would Whitacre like to be CEO for the long term?
“I’m enjoying it, I will say that,” Whitacre said. But, he added, “Do I want to do it long term? I told the board, ‘No,’ but I haven’t defined that. I can’t even define that myself.”