Treasury to sell $3 billion of stock in bailed-out Ally Financial

The wind-down of the bailout continues.

The Obama administration has decided to sell about $3 billion of the government’s common stock holdings in Ally Financial Inc., a former General Motors Corp. lending arm propped up with taxpayer assistance during the financial crisis.

That would bring the recovery from Ally to $15.3 billion, or 89%, of the $17.2 billion bailout provided by the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Treasury Department said Thursday in announcing its plan.

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The deal would involve unloading 410,000 shares of Ally common stock at $7,375 apiece in a private offering, the department said. After the sale, taxpayers would still hold about 37% of Ally’s common stock, a stake the government plans to sell later.

The transaction would bring the Treasury Department’s total recovery on the various TARP bailout efforts to $435.8 billion, exceeding the $422.2 billion disbursed.

Ally, based in Detroit, was founded in 1919 as General Motors Acceptance Corp. to provide financing for buyers of GM vehicles. At the time of the financial crisis it had run up enormous losses at a subprime mortgage arm.