GM to buy back shares from US Treasury

CHICAGO - General Motors Co (GM) is set to buy back 200 million of its shares from the US Department of Treasury, Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.

GM Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann said GM will pay $5.5 billionor $27.5 a share for the Treasury stake in a deal expected to close by the end of this year.

The US Treasury Department said that it will sell its remaining stake of about 300.1 million shares in GM "through various means in an orderly fashion" in the next 12 to 15 years.

GM received some 50 billion dollars from the US Treasury as part of its 2009 bankruptcy restructuring in 2009 under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). The US government bailed out GM and Chrysler Group in an effort to protect jobs.

TARP is only a temporary, emergency program, and should be ended as soon as practicable, said Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Timothy Massad.