GM's Akerson: Taxpayer Payback Will Take Several Years

DETROIT - General Motors Co. results "over the next several years" will determine how quickly the U.S. government bailout that saved it last year is paid back, GM CEO Dan Akerson said.

Paying back the government all at once would be "unrealistic," Akerson told Reuters and other reporters in a meeting at GM headquarters in downtown Detroit.

Akerson, who was named as GM's fourth CEO in an 18-month period during a shake-up in August, said he was not contemplating more management changes at the automaker.

GM filed plans for a public stock offering within a week of the announcement that Akerson would replace CEO Ed Whitacre at the top of the company. Akerson became CEO on September 1, and is expected to become chairman at year's end.

Akerson declined to discuss the IPO.

Akerson was named to GM's board in July 2009 after the automaker emerged from a government-funded bankruptcy that left the Treasury holding a nearly 61 percent stake.

The IPO, which is expected in November, would allow the government to begin to shed its stake and for GM to move away from its "government motors" image.