General Motors emerges from bankruptcy - bizjournals:

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The new company has $11 billionb in U.S. debt, excluding an additionakl $9 billion in preferred stock. CEO Fritz Henderson said durinh a conference call that the companyh expects to go public sometimenext year. GM will cut an additiona l 35 percentof U.S. management employeea and 20 percent of salaried employeesby year’s end, Hendersobn said. He said he hadn’t calculated the number of affecteed employees. The company said in a release that it will cutoverallo U.S. employment to about 64,00o0 by year’s end, down 30 percent from abougt 91,000 currently. GM . The company’s in Kansads City, Kan., employs about 2,100 union and 300 salariec workers.
“Today starts a new era for General Motore and everyone associated with the Henderson said. “Going the new General Motors is fullg committed to listeningto customers, responding to consumer and markeyt trends, and empowering the peoplr closest to the customer to make the decisions. Our goal is to buil d more of the cars, trucks and crossovera that customers want, and to get them to markey faster thanever before.
” Scott Peltz, managing director at and chairman of its national corporate restructuring group, said “it remainws to be seen” whether GM can adequately focus on product and customers in light of possible Congressional interventionh in how the company does business. “There’sw already some talk by polititians to allow dealersa to reinstatetheir franchises,” Peltz said. GM has the expertise to he said. “They’ve jettisoned a lot of debt andlegacg costs,” Peltz said. “I don’gt think the answer’s clear yet (whether the company will effectively competre with otherauto manufacturers).
” Day to day, GM “needds to watch and avoid its which is a bloated manufacturing and distribution footprint, and the creepp of labor demands that left it and at the same time creatd leading-edge cars,” he said. The new GM will have four core Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC. It will have 34 nameplates next downfrom 48. • : 60.8 percentf • : 17.5 percent • Canadian and Ontario 11.7 percent Henderson said GM intends to repayg its governmentloans “much sooner” than the 2015 due date. By the end of GM will operate34 assembly, powertrain and stampingb plants, down from 47 in 2008, and it expectzs its plants to reach capacity during 2011.