Ford given the green light for a stock offering

Shares will be used to pay health care obligations to retired autoworkers

By: AP | WSAV-TV
Published: May 14, 2009

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WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - Ford Motor Co. says shareholders have
approved its request to issue more common shares to help pay some
of its health care obligations to retired autoworkers.
At the automaker's annual meeting in Delaware, more than 95
percent of shareholders voted to authorize a stock offering that
Ford could use to meet up to 50 percent of its obligations to its
Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association. That is the health care
trust for retired autoworkers and their families.
On Monday, Ford disclosed a public offering of 300 million
shares of common stock that will help it fund the VEBA, which is
owed $6.3 billion by the end of this year.
The offer is a first for the 105-year-old company, which went
public in 1956.