Why the Ally IPO is good news for taxpayers
Ally Financial is trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, under the ticker symbol ALLY. The company, you might remember, had to be bailed out by the government in 2008, as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program or TARP, to the tune of $17.2 billion.
The government sold 95 million shares in the company through the initial public offering, raising about $2.4 billion dollars. Add that to the $15.3 billion Ally had already paid back, and U.S. taxpayers have made about half a billion dollars more than they invested in the company.
The stock sale puts the government a step closer to sloughing off what remains of the financial crisis bailouts.
According to the New York Times:
The firm, once General Motors’ financing arm, is the government’s last remaining holding from its enormous bailouts of the financial and auto industries.
The U.S. Department of Treasury said the Ally stock sale brings its total returns on TARP investments to $438.3 billion. The government has handed out about $423.4 billion. With a little math, we’re talking taxpayer profit from TARP in the neighborhood of $15 billion.
But, we’re not in the clear yet. TARP will likely still cost taxpayers. This, from the U.S. Treasury:
“Treasury’s latest quarterly estimate of TARP’s lifetime cost as reflected in the February 2014 Monthly Report to Congress, developed in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, is $39.02 billion, which is largely attributable to our efforts to help struggling homeowners deal with the housing crisis. Unlike TARP’s investment programs, the funds committed for TARP’s housing programs were not intended to be recovered.”
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