General Motors Gives $6.66 Million in Stock to Top Executives

General Motors Co., the largest U.S. automaker, gave stock valued at $6.66 million to 14 top managers, including $1.33 million worth to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ed Whitacre.

The 123,347 shares were valued at $53.98 each, a price determined by a third party, the company said today in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

GM gives executives salary stock units and restricted shares to augment their compensation, which is constrained by government rules because the automaker is 61 percent owned by the U.S. Treasury Department. The company must disclose the shares it grants in filings every quarter.

The company’s equity should be worth $70 billion, according to a May 20 report by Eric Selle, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. debt analyst who projects a return of 47 cents on the dollar for holders of bonds issued by GM’s predecessor, General Motors Corp., that will be converted to stock and warrants in new GM.

GM’s implied equity value is about $47 billion at today’s bond prices. Assuming 500 million shares, that would equate to about $94 a share. At that price, the shares granted today would be worth a total of $11.6 million.

Whitacre, whose stock would be worth about $2.31 million based on GM’s bonds, also receives a $1.7 million annual cash salary.

Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell was awarded 15,979 shares worth about $862,500 under GM’s valuation and $1.5 million at market rates. Liddell receives a base salary of $750,000 a year.

Some executives sold shares back to the Detroit-based company. Managers sold 7,924 shares for a total of about $427,700, according to the filings. Vice Chairman Tom Stephens sold the most, 1,460 shares for about $78,800. Whitacre and Liddell didn’t sell shares.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Welch in Southfield, Michigan, at dwelch12@bloomberg.net.

Ed Whitacre, chairman and chief executive officer of General Motors Co., speaks about the Chevrolet Volt electric in Austin, Texas. Photographer: Steven Noreyko/General Motors Co. via Bloomberg