GM Eyes Ally Financial’s International Unit

CEO Dan Akerson tells Bloomberg News that General Motors Co. is interested in buying Ally Financial Inc.'s international operations.

Ally the former General Motors Acceptance Corp. announced on Monday that it is seeking a buyer for the unit's $30 billion of assets. Those include auto lending, insurance, banking and other financial operations in Canada, Mexico, Europe and South America.

The U.S. government, which gave Ally $17 billion of bailout loans in 2009, now owns 74% of the company. Ally has thus far repaid about one-third of that financing. The finance company aims to use the proceeds from selling the international unit to repay an additional one-third.

Akerson says GM is the "natural buyer" for the international lending operations it previously controlled for 87 years, assuming the price is right. "We're not going to bleed to buy it," he tells Bloomberg.

Akerson adds that GM is probably not interested in Ally's American operations because the carmaker already has an arrangement with Wells Fargo & Co. to make auto and dealer loans in the western U.S.

Separately, Ally's Residential Capital unit filed for Chapter 11 today after losing billions of dollars on soured mortgage loans in recent years. The action was widely expected because ResCap had a large bond payment due this week.

Residential Capital has lined up $1.5 billion in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing to support its operations during reorganization. The mortgage company has already reached agreement with some of its creditors and aims to exit bankruptcy by year-end. Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. has agreed to buy ResCap's operations for about $2.4 billion, although the bankruptcy court will seek higher bids.