The answer is in autos, new GMAC chief says

GMAC Inc., the lender that is seeking a third federal bailout, must focus on auto financing and find a solution to its money-losing mortgage business, newly appointed chief executive officer Michael Carpenter says.

"The first priority is we have to make GMAC the premier auto-finance company," Carpenter, 62, said in an interview after his appointment was announced late Monday.

Second, "the mortgage business has been a drag on the company and we need to find a solution," he said.

Carpenter's goal for auto finance matches the policy of the federal government, which last December deemed Detroit-based GMAC necessary for the survival of General Motors Corp.

The federal government financed two GMAC bailouts totaling $13.5 billion and had been negotiating another injection worth as much as $5.6 billion.

As for GMAC's Residential Capital L.L.C. mortgage unit, investors, analysts, and even GMAC have been speculating for many months about a bankruptcy filing.

"The government is running into bailout fatigue, and GMAC is realizing it can't rely on this pool of support from the taxpayers," said Sean Egan, president of Egan-Jones Ratings Co. in Haverford, Pa. "The easiest group of assets to jettison, if you want to call them assets, is ResCap. They've been a source of a huge amount of embarrassment and pain."

Residential Capital is based in Minneapolis, but major mortgage operations and 1,800 employees are in Fort Washington. Those workers also support GMAC's bank, Ally Bank, and perform general corporate functions. At a job fair today, the company is looking to hire 70 additional employees for the mortgage business and the bank.

A separate part of GMAC - for commercial mortgages - was sold in 2006 and is now an independent company, Capmark Financial Group Inc., of Horsham.

Carpenter replaced Alvaro de Molina, 52, who had been chief executive since April 2008. De Molina did not say what his next career step would be. The company did not make him available for interviews.

ResCap was one of the nation's biggest suppliers of subprime mortgages, or home loans made to people with the weakest credit. GMAC reported losses in eight of the last nine quarters, driven in part by defaults on the home loans. The deficits totaled about $13.2 billion, and ResCap lost $9.2 billion in those eight periods.

Carpenter, a GMAC board member, ran Citigroup Inc.'s alternative-investment unit until he left in 2006.

GMAC said it has asked the Treasury to delay a new injection from the Troubled Asset Relief Program until Carpenter has assessed GMAC's needs.

The federal government is the biggest owner of GMAC, with a 35.4 percent stake. GMAC's former parent, General Motors, holds a 9.9 percent stake, and Cerberus Capital Management L.P., a New York investment firm, holds 22 percent. GMAC does not have publicly traded shares.

GMAC chairman Franklin W. Hobbs asked de Molina to leave during a midday meeting Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

De Molina declined in an e-mail to comment.