Dec. 22--The game is over for holders of General Motors Corp.'s existing stocks and bonds, Credit Suisse auto analyst Chris Ceraso wrote in a note to investors today.

Ceraso downgraded Credit Suisse's rating of GM from neutral to underperform and dropped its target price for the stock to $1 from $2.

The news caused many investors to dump their investment in GM.

Shares of GM were trading at $3.72 mid-day. That's down 17.59%, or 79 cents, from Friday's close.

"Over the next two months, as bondholders, union representatives and company management meet to hammer out concessions, we think it will become increasingly clear that the enormous sacrifice of value on the part of the union (upwards of $10 billion) and bondholders (about $24 billion) will require the complete or near-complete elimination of the existing GM equity," Ceraso wrote.

In addition, he wrote, investors should remember that the federal government will claim up to 20% of the equity value in exchange for $13.4 billion in loans.

"We think existing equity holders will be largely, if not entirely, wiped out in the process," Ceraso wrote.

Contact KATIE MERX at 313-222-8762 or kmerx@freepress.com.

-----

To see more of the Detroit Free Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.freep.com

Copyright (c) 2008, Detroit Free Press

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:GM, NYSE:CS,

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.