GM Poised to Sell Stake in Ally Financial

General Motors Co. intends to sell its remaining 8.5% stake in Ally Financial Inc., the carmaker's former GMAC financing unit, The Wall Street Journal says.

Unnamed sources tell the newspaper the private placement deal would be worth about $900 million.

GM sold a 51% stake in GMAC to Cerberus Capital Management and other investors, retaining a 9.9% stake, in 2006. The U.S. Dept. of Treasury, which later invested $17.2 billion to bail out the unit, remains Ally's majority owner.

GM has been preparing for an exit from Ally for a year. It also has acquired Ally's overseas operations in Europe and Latin America and merged them into its new captive finance company, GM Financial.

In November Ally bought back $5.9 billion worth of its shares from the government, which diluted GM's previous stake to the current 8.5%. Sources tell Bloomberg News that GM is eager to shed its stake in Ally before the latter company launches an initial public offering it filed for more than two years ago.