GM to Repay Government Debt by June

General Motors decided to pay its debt to the US and Canadian government by June. "We intend to pay the debt," chairman and acting chief executive Ed Whitacre said in his first meeting with media on Tuesday. "We'll be done by June."

GM has received $52 billion from the US government in order to stay out of bankruptcy. Out of that amount, $45.3 billion was converted into equity as the government got 61 percent of the car manufacturer. Apparently GM plans to start paying back in quarterly installments starting this month with 1.2 billion.

Ed Whitacre also tried to explain what happened with ex-CEO Fritz Henderson.

"I think the board wanted to change things, do things a little differently, go in a different direction," Whitacre said. "The board disagreed with Fritz on Opel. I don't think that's any secret," he said. “The board looked at it and said this is a valuable asset. Why should we sell it for something that probably wasn't enough money when we can do something with it. We just disagreed and the board wanted to have Opel."

Though Whitacre said that he does not intend to stay long as the CEO of the company, it seems that things might have changed. "Do I want to do it long term? I told the board no, but I haven't defined that. I can't even define that myself," Whitacre said. All we know is that when asked how his new job feels like, Whitacre replied: “I’m enjoying it.”