GM won approval to sell most of its assets to a US Treasury-funded buyer, cementing the Obama administration’s efforts to remake the car industry and leaving restructuring professionals with several years of work to liquidate the leftovers.

US bankruptcy judge Robert Gerber in New York issued his ruling yesterday, saying the proposed sale was the only option available to the struggling Detroit-based carmaker. “As nobody can seriously dispute, the only alternative to an immediate sale is liquidation – a disastrous result for GM’s creditors, its employees, the suppliers who depend on GM for their own existence, and the communities in which GM operates,” Mr Gerber said in an 87-page opinion. “In the event of a liquidation, creditors now trying to increase their incremental recoveries would get nothing.” – (Bloomberg)