Officials at GM Sell Their Shares

The Wall Street Journal - Seven General Motors officials dumped all of the stock they directly own in the auto maker as it faces scenarios that would either dilute or wipe out common shareholders.

On Monday, the same day Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said the company still could avoid seeking bankruptcy protection, six insiders, but not Mr. Henderson, disclosed selling an aggregate 204,711 shares at prices from $1.45 to $1.61 a share, or $323,657 in total.

In 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading Tuesday, GM's shares fell 20%, or 29 cents, to $1.15, its lowest close in 76 years, on April 27, 1933.

Vice Chairman Robert A. Lutz, who moved into an advisory role last month and will retire by the end of the year, had the largest transaction, selling 81,360 shares for $130,990.

The recent sales followed a disclosure last month that an independent fiduciary, citing the possibility of a GM bankruptcy, sold all of the GM shares in two employee-benefit plans. Also last month, Maureen Kempston Darkes, the president of GM Latin America, Africa and Middle East, disposed of 18,471 shares for $33,433.

"These particular executives made the decision to sell their shares in advance of what we know is going to be happening over the next few weeks," GM spokeswoman Julie Gibson said.

GM is facing a June 1 restructuring deadline from the government and could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection if it is unable to complete a debt-for-equity exchange for $27 billion in unsecured bonds.

Stephen J. Lubben, a bankruptcy-law professor at Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark, N.J., said bankruptcy is the likeliest outcome for GM and would render the shares practically worthless. Even if the exchange offer were to succeed, investors would be left with shares that won't be worth much, he said.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124213933912010873.html

Insiders Dump Shares To Meet Margin Calls

The New York Times - When executives own big stakes in the companies they run, investors can rest a little more easily at night, knowing those managers have the shareholders’ best interests at heart. Except when maybe they don’t.

As the staggering destruction of wealth in the stock market has recently revealed, executives can sometimes appear to own shares in a company, but have actually pledged them as collateral for a loan. And if there is a sharp drop in the stock’s value, the executive may suddenly be forced to dump those shares, very likely adding to the stock’s downdraft.

And the other shareholders probably never saw it coming.

As it turns out, while corporate insiders must disclose their comings and goings in their companies’ shares, experts say there are no hard and fast rules requiring that the public be told when an executive has put a big block of shares at risk by borrowing against them.

Already this month, there have been about $1 billion in sales by company insiders dumping stock to meet margin calls, as lenders’ demands for the stock sales are known. According to Equilar, an executive compensation research firm in Redwood Shores, Calif., executives at three dozen companies have disclosed such sales since October.

Under Securities and Exchange Commission rules, executives are typically required to disclose insider sales within two days of making them and indicate why they were sold, including as a result of a margin call. But experts say there are no rules requiring that the public be told ahead of time that an executive has pledged stock in a margin loan or how the borrowed money is being used. It might be a loan to buy more shares of the company’s stock — which would indicate a vote of confidence in the shares. Or it might be a loan to buy some other company’s stock or something else altogether — possibly a sign that the executive thinks there are better places to invest. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/business/20pay.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink