General Motors executives say they will file official paperwork next week, taking the automotive giant public.
And local GM dealers hope the news builds more confidence in the company, bringing more people into the showrooms
"I wish some of the naysayers that I talked to when all of the trouble went down were here to see now," said Jim Simms of Simms Chevrolet in Clio. "We have an IPO coming out. Paperwork is getting ready to be filed and it should be an exciting time for everybody."
Simms said the news keeps getting better for GM.
More than a year ago, there were bailouts, congressional interest and the government taking over a majority of operations.
Today, profits are up, debt is down and GM is set to go public.
"I'm one of the people," Simms said. "I'm pretty impressed. I thought it was going to take longer than it has."
GM will file paperwork for an initial public offering sometime next week.
That comes after this week's news that GM made $1.3 billion in the second quarter.
That's in addition to a near billion dollars in first-quarter earnings.
The IPO effort looks to sell part of the government's stake in GM.
GM got more than $50 billion from taxpayers while the government took over 61 percent of the company.
Simms thinks most investors will get on board.
"The naysayers, who are investors, will jump on board," Simms said. "I think that the serious investors, the people that know the industry and even down to maybe the casual investor is going to recognize that this is going to be a good value."
GM was set to file paperwork today but pushed that back after Thursday's announcement that CEO Ed Whitacre is stepping down on Sept. 1.
