【英语科技】通用汽车冲击最大IPO

General Motors Co. is on pace to sell $18.1 billion in shares in what likely will be the second-largest U.S. initial stock offering ever, capping a remarkable two-year turnaround in which the car maker went from begging for a government bailout to posting its first steady profits in more than six years.

GM sold about 478 million shares Wednesday at $33 each, a price higher than the company and its bankers thought was possible just days ago. An additional 71.7 million shares are expected to be sold by GM's bankers as part of an 'overallotment' allowed when sales are stronger than expected. And it sold $4.35 billion in preferred shares.

Wednesday afternoon at the Manhattan headquarters of one of the lead bankers, Morgan Stanley, GM executives were greeted by traders and bankers standing and cheering while wearing blue GM T-shirts over their shirts and ties.

Buyers of the GM shares included giant pension and hedge funds as well as GM factory workers and retirees. Among foreign buyers was China's largest car maker, SAIC Motor Corp., which is GM's biggest partner in the world's largest auto market. SAIC bought about $500 million of shares for a GM stake of close to 1%.

The proceeds will help pay back the U.S. government for the $49.5 billion it spent on its controversial rescue of the company, which has gone from losing billions of dollars a year to making $4.07 billion so far in 2010. The Detroit company also has been gaining U.S. market share with strong-sellers such as the Chevrolet Equinox and Buick LaCrosse after years of seeing customers slip away to foreign-based rivals.

The U.S. Treasury cut its ownership stake in GM to about 26% from 61% through the stock sale, and it may decline further through the overallotment sale. That could ease the 'Government Motors' taint that had turned off some car shoppers as well as potential GM investors.

It will take more than the IPO to win back consumers who shunned GM due to its bankruptcy and bailout, said Jessica Caldwell, senior analyst at car-shopping site Edmunds.com. 'The only thing that is truly going to do the trick is time,' she said.

A major test of the company's rebound -- and of the success of the government's strategy of selling so many shares at once -- will come Thursday, when GM shares trade for the first time since it entered bankruptcy reorganization on June 1, 2009.

Investors and analysts watch for the size of the first-day 'pop' of an IPO. If the shares rise more than the usual 10% to 20%, some observers may say GM and the U.S. charged too little and left money on the table. If the shares falter, it will mean some investors still question GM's future.

Reuters摩根士丹利是通用汽车此次IPO的牵头银行之一。
通用汽车公司（General Motors Co.）在首次公开募股（IPO）中售出价值181亿美元的股票，这可能是美国迄今为止第二大IPO。此次IPO将为该公司两年来不平凡的扭亏为盈历程划上句号，两年前通用汽车曾乞求政府救助，而现在它则六年多来首次实现了稳定获利。

通用汽车周三以每股33美元的价格出售了大约4.78亿股股票，该价格高于通用汽车和其聘请的银行几天前认为可能的水平。如果售股情况好于预期，通用汽车聘请的银行料将执行超额配售权，额外出售7,170万股股票。通用汽车还出售了价值43.5亿美元的优先股。

周三下午在通用汽车此次IPO的牵头银行之一摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）位于曼哈顿的总部，身穿通用汽车蓝色T恤衫的通用汽车高管受到交易员和银行家们的起立欢呼。

通用汽车股票的买家包括大型退休基金和对冲基金，以及通用汽车的工人和退休人员。外国买家中有中国最大汽车制造企业──上海汽车集团股份有限公司，这是世界最大汽车市场上通用汽车的最大合作伙伴。上海汽车购买了通用汽车约5亿美元的股票，获得后者近1%的股权。

上市所募资金将帮助偿还美国政府在救助该公司时支付的495亿美元，通用汽车已从每年亏损数十亿美元转为盈利，2010年迄今已获利40.7亿美元。此前数年通用汽车的客户不断向外国竞争对手流失，但该公司通过销售雪佛兰春分（Chevrolet Equinox）和别克君越（Buick LaCrosse）等畅销车，已增加了自己在美国市场的占有率。

通过出售股份，美国财政部在通用汽车的持股比例从61%降至约26%，在超额配售权被行使后，财政部在通用汽车的持股比例还有可能进一步下降。这或许将冲淡该公司“政府汽车公司”（Government Motors）的痕迹，这一污点曾使一些购车者和通用汽车的潜在投资者望而却步。

购车网站Edmunds.com的资深分析师考尔德韦尔（Jessica Caldwell）说，要想赢回那些曾因通用汽车破产和寻求救助而远离该公司的消费者，在IPO之外还要做更多努力；目前只是时间问题。

对于通用汽车能否起死回生和政府一次出售这么多股票的策略能否成功的重大考验将出现在周四，届时将是通用汽车在2009年6月1日进入破产重组程序后其股票首次上市交易。

投资者和分析师都在关注IPO首日股票的涨跌幅。如果股票涨幅超过10%-20%的一般水平，一些观察家可能会说，通用汽车和美国政府把新股发行价格定得太低，白白让别人拣了便宜。但如果股票下跌，这将意味着一些投资者仍在质疑通用汽车的未来。

（本文版权归道琼斯公司所有，未经许可不得翻译或转载。）