(Or is is “private”?) AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department has hired Lazard Freres & Co. as its adviser to prepare for an initial public stock offering by General Motors Co.
Treasury signed the agreement on Monday but did not reveal it until Friday. The agreement says that Lazard Freres will be paid $500,000 a month over the next year for the advice it provides the government.
The agreement says that if no stock sale has occurred during the first 12 months of the contract, Lazard Freres will receive a fee of $250,000 a month until the sale is completed.
The Treasury owns 61 percent of General Motors. The IPO would allow the government to begin recouping its investment. GM CEO Ed Whitacre has said he expects an IPO in late 2010 or early 2011.