Fritz Henderson, chief executive officer of General Motors Co. speaks during a news conference at the GM headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, US, Friday

General Motors Co., a new company majority-owned by the US government, emerged from the remains of bankrupt General Motors Corp. by taking over the best assets of the biggest US automaker.

The asset handover frees the new GM from most of the obligations of the old entity, which was pushed into Chapter 11 on June 1 by the Obama administration. Joining the US as shareholders are a union retiree trust, the Canadian and Ontario governments, and the old GM.

“There’s a lot of PR and marketing that needs to take place,” said Erich Merkle, an independent auto analyst based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “Once you go into bankruptcy, it doesn’t necessarily help change the perception of the company in the minds of the consumer.”

Salaried employment will fall by 20 percent, GM said, and the number of US executives will drop by 35 percent to help meet Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson’s goal of shedding management layers to speed decision making.

Among the positions being eliminated is that of North American president, now held by Troy Clarke, a group vice president. GM didn’t say whether Clarke would remain with the new company.

Lutz’s role

Bob Lutz, GM’s former vehicle czar, returns as vice chairman, responsible for “all creative elements of products and customer relationships,” the company said. Lutz, 77, will report to Henderson and be part of a new executive committee. He had been scheduled to retire at the end of this year.

New Chairman Ed Whitacre, the retired CEO of AT&T Inc., took over Friday. He will preside over a board that is being reconstituted at the direction of President Barack Obama’s auto task force.

“We all want to win, we are going to win,” Whitacre, 67, said at a press conference in Detroit.

The dealer ranks will shrink to 3,600 as the new company operates only its Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC brands in the US. GM is dropping Pontiac, selling Hummer and Saturn and is working to dispose of Sweden’s Saab.

Sale proceeds

General Motors Co., not the old GM, will keep the proceeds from the Saturn and Hummer sales, Henderson said at the news conference.

The old GM will wind up with 16 abandoned plants, including contaminated factory sites, and a 9-hole golf course in New Jersey. Those will be disposed of by the bankruptcy estate, which is to be run by Albert Koch, and funded with $1.175 billion from the US Treasury.

US taxpayers own 60.8 percent of the new company. A trust for United Auto Workers’ retiree medical bills has 17.5 percent of the new GM; the Canadian and Ontario governments have 11.7 percent; and the old GM has 10 percent.

GM said its $11 billion in US. debt excludes $9 billion in preferred stock, and added that the figure “could change under fresh-start accounting.”

Total obligations were cut by more than $40 billion, mostly in unsecured debt and liabilities for the UAW health-care fund, GM said.

Going public

“We expect to take the company public again as soon as practical, starting next year, and to repay our government loans as soon as possible,” said Henderson, 50, who got the job in March when the government asked CEO Rick Wagoner to step aside.

GM’s manufacturing footprint will shrink in the US to 34 assembly, powertrain and stamping plants by the end of 2010, a decrease from 47 in 2008, according to the company.

By the end of this year, US employment will shrink to 64,000, 30 percent fewer jobs than on December 31.

GM joins Chrysler in rushing through government-backed restructurings forced on the companies by Obama’s task force as their cash evaporated amid the worst US auto market since the early 1980s.

Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 on April 30 and left court protection on June 10 under an alliance with Italy’s Fiat SpA.

Source: Bloomberg