General Motors float could be biggest in US history

General Motors, which was bailed out by the US government last year to the tune of $50bn, is preparing to re-float on the stock exchange in what could be the biggest initial public offering in US history.

GM, which became a private company 61 per cent owned by the US government after emerging from bankruptcy protection in July 2009, has filed a 700-page prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Analysts believe the IPO will raise between $12bn and £20bn. The current record for a share sale is held by Visa, which raised $19.7bn in 2008.

GM has not confirmed exactly how many shares it is selling, saying only that the number would be "determined by market conditions and other factors at the time of the offering".

Analysts believe that the US Treasury will sell about a fifth of the 304 million shares it holds, reducing its stake in GM to less than 50 per cent.

Last week GM reported second-quarter profits of $1.6bn, its biggest profit in six years. But the attractiveness of the company's IPO may be somewhat tarnished by the fact that the float would have to bring in $70bn just to pay back all of the GM's stakeholders.

Read a full report at BBC News. ·