MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

General Motors admit bankruptcy “more likely” on June deadline

US auto maker General Motors' top executive said Monday that it's more likely the company will file for US bankruptcy than meet a June 1 government deadline to restructure.

In a conference call Monday, CEO Fritz Henderson said there was still hope that the company could restructure without a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing but that there were many hurdles to overcome.

“Given the objectives that we've set for ourselves, it's more probable that we would need to accomplish our goals in a bankruptcy,” Henderson said. “Certainly the task that we have in front of us is large.”

He said it was “more probable that we would need to resort to a bankruptcy process, but there's still an opportunity and still a chance for it to be done outside of a court process”.

Henderson said Monday that if the company does file for bankruptcy in the US it doesn't mean they'll do the same in other countries. “As a general principle, I think our preference would be to avoid that,” he said.

Henderson added that the company was looking at its operations “country-by-country” to determine where it may need bankruptcy protection.

To pay its current creditors, GM has been surviving on 15.4 billion US dollars in loans from the federal government. Henderson said the company is considering every aspect of the business, including the possibility of moving out of its Detroit headquarters.

As the US deadline looms, GM is trying to get more worker concessions, cut dealers, shutdown plants and convince bondholders to exchange debt for company stock.

If GM files for bankruptcy, it will be allowed to continue operating while being protected from creditors.

In late April, Chrysler entered bankruptcy protection as part of its own attempt to restructure.