With IPO in Doubt, Ally Could Unload Auto Lending, Banking Units

Government-controlled Ally Financial, which owes U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars of bailout cash, is reportedly mulling selling off all or part of its auto lending and banking businesses.

According to Reuters, the sale considerations come amid waning hopes Ally will be able to sell shares to the public in an IPO that had been hoped to raise some $6 billion.

The U.S. saved Ally from financial ruin during the recession by injecting $17 billion into the company, which was then the lending arm of collapsing General Motors (NYSE:GM). Ally was drowning in a sea of toxic mortgage loans housed in its Residential Capital mortgage business, which it is now attempting to sell off.

Ally, which has repaid the U.S. $5.4 billion, has had to postpone its IPO due to worries about ResCap as well as the scary sovereign debt crisis in Europe that has unsettled global financial markets.

It’s not clear how much Ally’s auto lending and banking businesses would fetch, but potential buyers include JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE:TD), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) and somewhat ironically, GM, Reuters reported.

After receiving a massive government rescue of its own, GM emerged from bankruptcy in 2010 in the largest U.S. IPO on record. TD acquired Chrysler’s financial arm in 2010 for $6.3 billion in 2010.