【英语科技】通用汽车首日交易温和收高

General Motors Co.'s shares rose a modest 3.6% Thursday, allaying concerns that the revitalized car company had priced the shares too high in its initial public offering a day earlier.

The stock opened at $35, a 6% rise on the IPO price, climbing to an intraday high of $35.99, up 9%, before settling at $34.19 in 4 p.m. composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

'The GM IPO is a feather in the government's cap,' said Todd Colvin, vice president at MF Global, alluding to the U.S. Treasury's bailout of the auto maker last year. 'There's a bit of elation out there surrounding the stock. But now we're at a realization stage: can the auto maker sell cars and turn a profit? Those have to be the two questions on every investor's mind right now.'

Meanwhile, in Washington, President Barack Obama hailed the resurgence of GM and its return to the stock market, saying one of the 'toughest tales of the recession took another big step toward becoming a success story.'

'Two years ago this seemed impossible,' the president said. 'In fact there were plenty of doubters and naysayers who said it couldn't be done, who were ready to throw in the towel and read the American auto industry last rites.'

GM in its Wednesday IPO sold more shares than expected at a higher price than originally planned. While the move underscored how much more favorably investors view the company after its dramatic, U.S.-financed bankruptcy reorganization last year, it caused some concern that any first-day gains might be sucked out of the stock sale. That could indicate the company overreached in its pricing.

Earlier this week, GM raised the number of common shares in the offering to 478 million from 365 million, and boosted its price range to $32 to $33 from $26 to $29, ultimately raising $15.8 billion through the common shares in its offering, or 50% more than it had hoped for.

Underwriters aimed to keep GM's first-day 'pop' at 10%, give or take two percentage points. Though investors have come to expect bigger pops─in recent months stock sales have gone as high as 40% to 50% on their first trading day─bankers were dealing with a most unusual seller, the U.S. government.

Unlike private-company IPOs, where the selling company often is willing to sell at a deeper discount to ensure a good first-day send-off for the shares, the U.S. Treasury, the biggest owner of GM, wanted the maximum amount possible for its investment, which was financed with taxpayer dollars. There was concern that politicians and Wall Street would be criticized for leaving money on the table if the stock soared too high.

None of the money from the common-stock portion of the sale will flow to the car maker. The majority of the shares─358 million, or 412 million with an 'overallotment' option that allows the banks to sell additional shares─came from the U.S. Treasury, which took a controlling stake in GM as part of a taxpayer-financed bailout last year.

Through the sale, the Treasury reduced its stake to 37% from 66%, and it could go as low as 26% if the overallotment shares and warrants are exercised. It expects to further cut its ownership in future follow-on sales after a six-month 'lockup' period.

Along with the common stock offering, GM raised $4.35 billion in a preferred-stock sale that will go into the Detroit auto maker's own coffers. But that amount will quickly flow out again: GM plans to use the proceeds to buy back a separate tranche of preferred stock from the Treasury and to make a cash contribution to its union's pension plan.

If underwriters exercise their right to sell an additional 71.7 million shares in the overallotment, the total common stock sale could hit $18.1 billion, making it the second-largest U.S. IPO in history, after Visa Inc.'s $19.7 billion sale in 2008, according to Dealogic. Globally, GM's sale would be the fifth-largest IPO.

Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said that some $4 billion of shares were sold to individual, or 'retail,' investors. In recent days, some financial firms complained that individuals were largely shut out of the deal. Mr. Liddell said GM's retail allocation was larger than typical for an IPO and limited by the fact that demand was high from all sides. The CFO said 90% of the IPO went to North American investors, with the mix focused on large mutual funds.

AP通用汽车公司CEO Daniel Akerson（中间红领带）和通用汽车的雇员们出席11月18日在纽约证券交易所举行的开盘仪式。
通用汽车（General Motors Co.）周四温和收高3.6%，缓和了人们对这家重生后的汽车公司周三的首次公开募股（IPO）定价过高的忧虑。

该股开盘报35美元，较IPO价格上涨6%，当日高点为35.99美元，涨幅达9%，下午四点在纽约证交所综合交易中收报34.19美元。

金融服务公司MF Global副总裁科尔文（Todd Colvin）说，通用汽车的IPO是美国政府的一个荣耀，意指美国财政部去年救助了该汽车公司。科尔文说，对于这只股票人们有些兴高采烈的劲头，但现在我们处于一个实现的阶段：这家汽车制造企业能卖出汽车并获利吗？这是每个投资者目前心里都存在的两个疑问。

与此同时，美国总统奥巴马（Barack Obama）在华盛顿赞扬了通用汽车的复苏及其重新上市，奥巴马说，这是经济衰退中最艰难的一个企业又朝着最终的成功迈出了一大步。

奥巴马说，两年前这看上去不可能，实际上有许多怀疑者和反对者，他们说这做不到，当时他们准备认输并为美国汽车业作临终祈祷。

通用汽车周三的IPO定价高于原计划，售出的股票也高于预期。尽管此举凸显了去年美国政府资助其进行破产重组后，投资者有多看好该公司，但也让一些人担心首日涨幅可能将在股票上市后萎缩。这可能暗示公司在定价时过于雄心勃勃。

本周稍早，通用汽车将其普通股发行量从3.65亿股调高至4.78亿股，并将价格区间从26-29美元上调至32-33美元，最终在普通股发行中募集到158亿美元资金，较原先预计的高出了50%。

股票承销商希望将通用汽车首日涨幅确定在10%，至多相差两个百分点。尽管投资者预计涨幅更大，最近几个月股票首日交易有的最高涨幅在40%-50%，但此次承销银行应对的是最不寻常的股票卖家──美国政府。

就私营企业IPO而言，出售方公司往往愿意以更大的折价出售，以确保股票第一天的表现能有不错的开局，而与这类IPO不同的是，作为通用汽车最大股东的美国财政部希望它依靠纳税人资金进行的投资能获得尽可能大的回报。人们担心如果通用汽车的股价飙升过高，政界人士和华尔街将因有所保留而受到批评。

此次发售中普通股部分筹集的资金一分一厘也不会流入这家汽车生产商。此次发行的3.58亿股，若行使超额配售选择权的话将增至4.12亿股，其中大部分都来自美国财政部，按照去年由纳税人提供资金拯救通用汽车的计划，财政部持有了这家公司的控股权。

通过此次交易，财政部的持股比例将由66%降至37%，若超额配售选择权和认股权得到行使。这一比例还将降至26%。财政部希望在六个月的锁定期结束后通过后续出售进一步降低持股。

与发售普通股一道，通用汽车还通过发售优先股筹集了43.5亿美元，这部分资金将流入这家底特律汽车商自己的口袋。但这笔钱很快就要再度流出：通用汽车计划用它从财政部手中回购另一部分优先股，同时还要用这笔钱向其工会的退休金计划注入资金。

据Dealogic，如果承销商行使超额配售权，增发7170万股，那么普通股的发售总额将达到181亿美元，成为继2008年Visa Inc.股票发行筹资197亿美元后，美国历史上第二大IPO交易。就全球范围看，通用汽车的交易将成为第五大IPO。

通用汽车首席财务长里德尔(Chris Liddell)说，大约40亿美元的股票出售给了个人投资者。一些金融公司近日抱怨个人投资者在很大程度上被挡在了这笔交易之外。里德尔说，通用汽车面向散户发售的部分要比通常IPO中的比例高，各方的旺盛需求使得这部分的发售比例受到了限制。他说，IPO中的90%都为北美投资者认购，其中主要是大型共同基金。