TARP Watchdog Estimates Breakeven on GM

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general of the Troubled Assets Relief Program, recently estimated that the federal government would need to sell its common stock holdings in General Motors for a little less than $134 per share in order to recoup its investment in the iconic car company.

As reported by The Associated Press, Barofsky gave the estimate in an August 30 letter to Sen. Charles Grassley (R. Iowa), saying the common shares would need to be sold for $133.78 each.

According to the letter, Barofsky uses a cost basis of $39.7 billion for the common stock, a figure that excludes $2.1 billion in preferred stock holdings and $6.7 billion in retired debt.

Barofsky also notes the per share estimate doesn't include the costs of GM's planned IPO that the Treasury expects to incur.

General Motors filed for its initial public offering on August 18, and a price range for the shares has yet to be determined.

Elsewhere in the letter, Barofsky acknowledged other questions posed in earlier letters by Grassley, one of the co-leaders of the Senate Finance Committee, about not only the IPO but also GM's planned acquisition of AmeriCredit(ACF), and said his office would review both the IPO and the AmeriCredit deal.

--Written by Michael Baron in New York.

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