DETROIT — General Motors has moved to strengthen its finances ahead of an initial public stock sale, announcing plans Thursday to cut debt and pension obligations by $11 billion.
The automaker, whose IPO is expected next month, will lighten its debt load by paying back money owed to taxpayers, company retirees and a health care trust. It will pay for the moves mainly with its stockpile of cash, which totals about $24 billion.
The $11 billion reduction includes paying back $2.1 billion owed to U.S. taxpayers. It also includes paying $2.8 billion to a United Auto Workers health care trust and putting $6 billion in stock and cash toward its pension plans, which are underfunded by roughly $27 billion.
The U.S. government, which bailed out the automaker last year, is GM’s largest shareholder. UAW members also own a large piece of the company.
GM will repay $2.1 billion to taxpayers by buying 84 million preferred shares held by the government. That brings the total GM has repaid to $9.5 billion out of the nearly $50 billion the government gave the company to survive bankruptcy protection last year. The government’s remaining $40 billion investment is equivalent to 61 percent of GM common shares.
