General Motors (NYSE: GM) Completes Sale, Emerges As New Company

General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) has completed its sale and will officially emerge from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as a new company, according to reports Friday.

The new company, 61 percent owned by the U.S. government, will clear bankruptcy in record time as it shed massive debts and burdensome contracts. GM lost more than $80 billion in the last four years and survives only because it expects to receive $50 billion in U.S. government loans.

On Thursday, a bankruptcy court order allowing GM to sell most of its assets to a new company went into effect.

Under plans that CEO Fritz Henderson will announce Friday, GM will cut another 4,000 white-collar jobs, including 450 top executives. The company still employs 88,000 people in the U.S. and 235,000 worldwide.

GM has said it will be able to make money even if the U.S. auto market stays at a depressed level of 10 million to 10.5 million vehicles sold, according to Associated Press.

For the first half of this year, sales have remained just under 10 million, after hitting more than 16 million as recently as 2007. Analysts expect a slight recovery in the second half.

GM ranked as the top global automaker in terms of sales for 77 years before Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. took the crown in 2008. The company sold nearly 8.4 million cars and trucks around the world in 2008, falling short of Toyota's nearly 9 million.

GM, once the largest corporation in America, held the top spot in the Fortune 500 ranking for 20 years before being pushed out of the top spot in 1973 by Exxon Mobil Corp. It reclaimed No. 1 status in 1985 and held it for another 15 years.

Also on Friday, Henderson is expected to announce that Bob Lutz, GM's product guru, will remain as a special adviser. Lutz, 77, announced in February that he would retire at year's end.

In addition to the U.S. government's controlling interest, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union gets a 17.5 percent stake of the company through its retiree health care trust, and the Canadian government will control 11.7 percent. The remaining shares will go to bondholders from the old company.

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