NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) June 1, 2012--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings on General Motors Co. (BB+/Stable/--) are unaffected by the company's announcement regarding substantial changes to its pension obligation for U.S. salaried retirees. GM will terminate its U.S. salaried plan; existing active employees will be transferred to a new, separate plan. We view the proposed actions as positive--although we do not expect the proposal to materially change the net unfunded amount (which we treat as a debt-like obligation), it will reduce both assets and liabilities significantly, and that should be a positive over time. GM estimates that the U.S. salaried pension obligation will decrease by about $26 billion (we assume plan assets will decrease
