Treasury Appoints Ally Board Member, Plans Sale of Ally Securities

The ""U.S. Department of the Treasury"":http://www.treasury.gov on Monday exercised its right to appoint a member to the ""Ally Financial Inc."":http://www.ally.com board of directors, naming John D. Durrett of the investment firm ""Serent Capital"":http://www.serentcapital.com/.
[IMAGE] Formerly GMAC, Inc., the Detroit-based mortgage and auto loan lender Ally was a recipient of one of the biggest private sector financial bailout packages from Treasury, which ultimately gave the federal government a majority ownership stake in the company. GMAC rebranded itself as Ally Financial in May 2010.

Commenting on the department's appointment to the Ally board, Tim Massad, acting assistant Treasury secretary for financial stability, said, ""This appointment is part of the administration's ongoing commitment to prudent stewardship of TARP [Troubled Asset Relief Program] investments. We believe that John Durrett will represent shareholders' interests effectively.""

Durrett currently serves as a strategic advisor to Serent Capital. He was previously the West Coast managing director and chairman of the finance committee of the board of directors at the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

During his 27-year career at McKinsey & Company, Durrett served clients primarily on matters involving strategy and organizational turnaround in a variety of industries including financial services.

Treasury also announced Tuesday that it will sell trust preferred securities (TruPs) received from Ally Financial as part of the government's bailout of the lender.

Treasury currently holds approximately $2.7 billion of Ally TruPs, which were obtained when the department ""restructured its commitment"":http://dsnews.comarticles/gmac-gets-38-billion-more-in-aid-as-government-takes-majority-ownership-2010-01-04 to Ally (then GMAC Inc.) in early 2010.

According to a statement from Treasury, ""All proceeds raised from this first sale would represent a partial recovery on Treasury's investment in Ally.""

The offering does not include any of Treasury's $5.9 billion of mandatory convertible preferred stock in Ally nor does it include any of Treasury's current holdings of 74 percent of the shares of Ally's common stock.

Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley will act as joint lead managers for the announced sale.