Electronic Data Systems Corp shares worth around $780m are to be sold by a General Motors pension plan. More than 15 million shares, representing over 22% of the total number of existing shares of the Plano, Texas IT services firm, will be sold. There are 112 million EDS shares in the GM Hourly Rate Employees Pension Plan pension plan, which an EDS spokesperson said was keen to diversify its holdings.
Roxane Barry, an EDS investor relations analyst, said that GM has been intent on divesting itself of EDS shares since EDS was spun off in 1996. Barry pointed to a similar off-loading in August 1998 of 11.5 million shares, saying that the company used public offerings because the open market was not an option. This was the only way they get rid of their EDS stock, Barry said. The sale should be seen, she claimed, as an attempt to maintain an orderly market for EDS stock within a continuing strategy.
Wall Street did not share the confidence of the IT services giant and EDS shares fell 2.8%.
