Until yesterday, that is, when the US Treasury Department admitted taxpayers can kiss farewell $1.6 billion of the money Chrysler received last year. This new development brings the total US loss with the two carmakers to $34 billion.
According to Treasury reps, cited by MSNBC, Chrysler repaid $1.9 billion of a $4 billion loan, with another $500 million to be paid by the new Chrysler.
Another Chrysler asset, Chrysler Financial LLC, announced on Monday it has repaid the Treasury Department $1.9 billion, with the government clearing the company's debtor-in-possession loan of $1.9 billion provided by the Treasury to Old Chrysler.
According to Treasury, the amount repaid by Chrysler Financial "is less than face value, but is significantly more than the Treasury expected to recover on this loan."
In December last year, the Treasury was expecting not to ecover a dime of the $3.7 billion in loans provided through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
In the recent past, the US gave $50 billion to GM (exchanged for a majority stake, except for $6.7 billion) and $12 billion to Chrysler. GMAC received $13.5 billion from the Treasury Department, which now owns 35.4 percent of the financial company.
Still, the loss estimated by Gene Sperling, senior counsel to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in early December (to which this latest development may be added), is better than the initial estimate of $44 billion.
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