GM repays loans to US and Canada
General Motors Co. has repaid $8.1 billion in loans it got from the U.S. and Canadian governments, a move it says is a sign the automaker is on the road to recovery.
Chief executive officer Ed Whitacre announced the repayments Wednesday at GM’s Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kan., and also said the company was investing a total of $257 million in that factory and the Detroit-Hamtramck plant. The payments were made Tuesday.
The White House pointed to GM’s repayment of the loan and Chrysler Group L.L.C.’s posting of an operating profit in the first quarter of 2010 as concrete signs that the bailout of the U.S. automakers was working.