F&C UK High (LSE:FHI)
Historical Stock Chart

From May 2019 to May 2024

Members of President Barack Obama's autos task force met with General Motors Corp.'s (GM) top executives on Monday in an effort to decide whether the auto maker should get billions more in federal aid.

GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner and Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson spent about two hours fielding questions from Obama's autos team in Washington D.C., according to a person familiar with the meeting. It was the first meeting between GM and the Obama team since the group was in Detroit last week to learn more about the auto industry.

"They're working as hard as any group has on what is an incredibly complex issue," the person said, describing the gathering as "fact finding."

The Obama administration is supposed to decide on March 31 whether GM and Chrysler get to keep $17.4 billion in federal loans they've received, and if the companies should get $21.6 billion in additional loans.

The auto makers have until the end of the month to cut deals with bond holders and the United Auto Workers to swap billions of dollars of debt for equity in a restructured company. The deals are a condition of the federal loans.

GM is seeking $16.6 billion in additional U.S. loans and at least $6 billion from other governments. Wagoner is scheduled to meet with German Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg later Monday to discuss the survival of Opel, GM's European subsidiary, and the auto maker's aid request.

GM had previously warned it would need $2 billion by the end of the month to avoid running out of cash, but last week said it could do without the infusion for now.

Monday's meeting comes a week after the automotive task force, Steven Rattner and Ron Bloom, visited the metro Detroit area to tour both GM and Chrysler LLL plants and meet with the United Auto Workers union.

A spokeswoman for Chrysler, which is seeking $5 billion in additional loans, said the company did not meet with government officials on Monday.

A Treasury official didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

-By Sharon Terlep; 248-204-5532; sharon.terlep@dowjones.com.

(Jeff Bennett and Josh Mitchell contributed to this story)