GMAC mum on whether it cleared bailout hurdle in time

Grand Blanc, Mich. —- GMAC Financial Services, the financing arm of General Motors, may have jeopardized its access to billions in federal bailout money by missing an important deadline Friday night.

Missing out on the bailout could send the company into bankruptcy or even force it to shut down —- a blow from which GM might not recover.

The company had until midnight Friday to complete a complicated deal that would make it eligible for bailout funds. GMAC would not say Saturday whether it had met the deadline.

“The offer did expire yesterday at 11:59 p.m. as planned,” GMAC spokeswoman Gina Proia said in an e-mail Saturday. “We have not yet issued final results but intend to in the near term. I have no further comment on the exchange until then.”

The requirement was that GMAC become a bank holding company so it could qualify to access bank rescue funds and also support GMAC loans to car buyers and GM dealerships. GM owns 49 percent of GMAC.

The repercussions for GM could be dire, says Erich Merkle, an auto industry analyst with Crowe Horwath.

General Motors’ ownership of GMAC has kept the finance arm lending to dealers and car buyers, even as credit from banks has dried up. If GMAC goes under, other institutions aren’t likely to step in to replace the credit lost by GM’s dealers and customers, he said. “It would make a difficult selling environment for GM that much more difficult,” Merkle said Saturday.

GMAC has not said publicly how much it was requesting from the $700 billion bank bailout fund. CreditSights analyst Richard Hoffman estimated Friday that GMAC “could have applied for up to about $6.3 billion.”