(August 18, 2010) DETROIT — General Motors today announced that it has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering consisting of common stock to be sold by certain of its stockholders and the issuance by the company of its Series B mandatory convertible junior preferred stock. 

The amount of securities offered will be determined by market conditions and other factors at the time of the offering.  The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined. 

The filing came just 13 months after GM was restructured in bankruptcy with $50 billion in direct aid from the U.S. government.

GM hopes to raise $12 billion to $16 billion with the stock sale, Bloomberg News reported, making it among the biggest initial public offerings ever.

In the filing, GM said weak sales and underfunded pensions pose risks for the automaker.

The success of the IPO will go a long way in determining how much American taxpayers will recover from their 61 percent stake in the automaker. Bloomberg said GM wants to sell a fifth of the government's 304 million shares

After the sale, the government's stake in GM is expected to drop below 50 percent.