GM to Repay Loans From U.S., Canada by End of June

General Motors Co., the automaker that restructured in a 40-day bankruptcy, plans to repay government loans by the end of June, CEO Ed Whitacre said.

The automaker owes the United States $6.7 billion and Canada $1.14 billion out of $50 billion in government aid. The loans have a scheduled maturity of July 2015. GM, 61 percent owned by the United States, doesn’t have a timetable for public trading of its shares, Whitacre told Bloomberg News.

“Repaying the loans gets them some goodwill and good publicity and also gets them more latitude to operate outside of the government’s control,” said Stephen Spivey, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan Inc. in San Antonio. “Paying off the loans could relieve GM of having to comply with government pay regulations that could be making it hard to recruit people.”

Whitacre called the pay guidelines “stringent.” Still, compensation isn’t the only reason people would be willing to work for GM, which is seeking a CEO, finance chief and a manager for the Buick and GMC brands, he said. For the top spot in particular, it’s about “the drive to lead a big company,” Whitacre said.

GM hopes to name a new finance chief “in a week or so,” he said. The Detroit-based company doesn’t yet have CEO candidates, the chairman said.