April 27 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., working to beat a June 1 U.S.-ordered bankruptcy deadline, will provide details today on the latest plan to cut costs and keep $15.4 billion in U.S. loans it needs to survive.

The largest U.S. automaker will discuss elimination of the Pontiac brand and reductions in plants and employees as well as initiatives to complete cuts as much as four years sooner than planned, people briefed on the details said. GM will update the news media at 9 a.m. New York time at its Detroit headquarters, according to a statement late yesterday.

GM is also expected to unveil details on getting holders of about $27.5 billion in unsecured debt to exchange their claims for equity in the restructured automaker, people familiar with the plans said. Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson has said he will eliminate more jobs and take other actions more quickly to meet President Barack Obama’s June 1 deadline.

“This is one more aggressive step GM needs to make in order for it to potentially avoid bankruptcy,” Rebecca Lindland, a forecaster at IHS Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts, said in an interview. “There is still some level of inevitability to bankruptcy. We’re in pretty bad times.”

The cuts may mean GM can be profitable in a U.S. market with sales of as few as 10 million autos, said the people. That would be 13 percent lower than previously projected. The annual sales rate was 9.9 million in March, after GM said Feb. 17 its break-even target was 11.5 million to 12 million.

At least six more plants in North America will be closed, CNBC reported, without saying how the information was obtained.

Dealer Plan?

GM may give details on how it will speed up the winnowing of 6,200 dealer locations to 4,100 sites, said one person. GM has been struggling to pay its bills as U.S. auto sales have fallen to the lowest rates in more than a quarter century.

The briefing this morning will include Henderson, Chief Financial Officer Ray Young and other executives, the company said. GM will also hold a conference call with analysts at 12:30 p.m. New York time.

GM said April 23 it will idle 13 U.S. assembly plants and one in Mexico, eliminating 190,000 vehicles from its production from mid-May into July, to help cut the inventory of unsold models piling up on dealer lots because of low demand.

The U.S. Treasury said April 24 that it provided an additional $2 billion to keep GM operating. The new money is part of $5 billion in extra loans disclosed last week in a report by the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Pontiac Out

The latest GM funding is in addition to $36.4 billion handed out to GM, Chrysler LLC, auto finance units GMAC LLC and Chrysler Financial Co., auto suppliers and for other programs to support the auto industry, the Government Accounting Office said in a report released last week.

GM will keep the Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC brands, after a review with the Obama administration’s automotive task force, people familiar with the plans said.

The automaker had already decided late last year to cut Pontiac to a niche brand, possibly with just one model, to sell alongside Buick and GMC in combined showrooms. To trim from its roster of eight U.S. brands, GM has said it will sell or shut Hummer, Saab and Saturn.

GM rose 4 cents to $1.80 at 7:26 a.m. before regular New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares tumbled 92 percent in the 12 months ended April 24 on concern that the company may collapse after $82 billion in losses since 2004.

A unit of State Street Corp. that manages a 401(k) fund for GM employees sold 75 million shares from March 31 to April 24, citing concerns that the equity could lose value in a bankruptcy, the companies said April 24.

GM has stepped up planning for both a new business model and a potential bankruptcy since late March, when the Obama administration asked CEO Rick Wagoner to resign and said it would back a “quick-rinse” bankruptcy to cut debt and other costs if GM couldn’t do so in 60 days.

“GM is making sacrifices, making painful cuts the administration wants,” said Lindland, the IHS Global Insight analyst. “It’s like a medical condition. The sooner you do the surgery, the sooner you can have a recovery.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan at jgreen16@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 27, 2009 07:37 EDT