国际英语新闻：GM to file for IPO this Friday

CHICAGO, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- General Motors Co. plans to file paperwork to launch a public offering on Friday, Detroit News reported on Wednesday.

The move will allow GM to begin selling shares before year's end, and will come a day after the company reports its second-quarter results.

GM Chairman and CEO Edward Whitacre Jr. said last week that GM would be solidly profitable for the rest of the year. He also hinted GM would post better results in the second quarter than it did in the first quarter, when it earned 865 million U.S. dollars.

One person briefed on the matter said GM is expected to report a more than 1 billion U.S. dollars profit on Thursday, including strong results in North America, Brazil and China.

Whitacre said the Treasury Department will shrink its 61-percent stake to under 50 percent during the first sale -- but he said he hoped it was far more than that. The government swapped about 43 billion dollars of its 50 billion dollars government bailout for its majority stake in the Detroit automaker.

GM lost 88 billion dollars in the four years leading up to the company's bankruptcy filing. The upcoming results could be GM's best half-year performance in six years.

GM's IPO filing -- more than 300 pages -- will detail its business plans and public offering details. Company executives and advisors will then mount a "road show" to sell the GM public offering.

A filing on Friday would be on schedule. UAW President Bob King said last month that GM would make its filing by mid-August.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission generally takes 60 to 90 days to approve a company's registration statement.