General Motors headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan following the close of trading on the GM's first day as a public company.
General Motors Company (NYSE: GM, TSX: GMM) today announced that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.647 per share on its Series B mandatory convertible junior preferred stock.
The dividend is payable on 1 March 2011 to Series B holders of record as of 15 February 2011, and is cumulative. The total amount of the dividend is approximately $64.7 million, according to a GM release.
GM sold 100 million Series B junior convertible shares at $50 each as part of its initial public stock offering last November more than a year after emerging from bankruptcy in July of 2009 by using $50 million in taxpayer funds from the U.S. Treasury Department, and the Canadian Central and Ontario governments.
The UAW health care trust fund also accepted shares in the reorganized GM in lieu of money owed it.
The convertible shares become common stock on 1 December 2013 unless they’re converted before then. They carry have a 4.75% dividend. Common is currently trading at close to $38 a share.
Based on gradually increasing global sales and markedly lower costs, GM posted a $4.2 billion profit in the first nine months of 2009, a positive trend that analysts expect to continue with 2010 results are revealed.
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, publisher (kzhw@aol.com), is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
Zino is at home on test tracks, knows his way around U.S. Congressional hearing rooms, auto company headquarters, plant floors, as well as industry research and development labs where the real mobility work is done. He can quote from court decisions, refer to instrumented road tests, analyze financial results, and profile executive personalities and corporate cultures.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
