GM Will Launch Another Share Offer to Raise Cash : * Autos: It’s the third time in eight months that the firm has turned to the market for capital.

General Motors Corp. registered plans Monday to raise $750 million by selling additional shares of preference stock, marking the third time in eight months that the battered auto giant has turned to the stock market to reinforce its tattered balance sheet.

But this time, the world’s largest auto producer intends to raise capital for its automotive operations with preference stock that can be converted into Class E shares of its fast-growing non-automotive subsidiary, Electronic Data Systems.

“We think this is a way that we can attract a different group of investors,” a GM spokesman said Monday.

Dividends on shares of preference stock are paid before those of other preferred stock or common stock. Under the plan filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, holders of Class E shares will continue to receive their normal dividends. The dividend for the new stock will be paid out of GM’s share of EDS’ earnings.

Analysts said GM, whose debt rating was lowered by Moody’s Investors Service earlier this month, might have faced another downgrade--and higher borrowing costs--had it chosen to raise funds by further leveraging its core automotive operations.

Scott Sprinzen, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s Corp., said the GM stock offering would be viewed as a “positive development” when the Wall Street rating agency reviews GM’s debt status in March.

Although the move will help GM raise the capital to continue the vehicle development programs vital to its future success, analysts said the company’s need to lean on EDS reflects the fragile state of its North American automotive operations, thought to have lost a record $6 billion in 1991.

“It’s really indicative of what alternatives appear to have been closed off to GM,” said David Garrity, an analyst at Nomura Research Institute in New York. “It is no longer using its automotive operations as collateral.”

GM stock rose $1.375 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday to close at $34.125.