GM Plans to Offer Stock to Raise $1 Billion : Cars: The troubled auto giant is scrambling for additional funds to pay for new-vehicle projects in the face of continuing heavy losses.

General Motors Corp. said Tuesday that it plans to raise an additional $1 billion from investors, bringing its total 1992 financings to more than $6 billion.

The troubled auto giant, scrambling for funds to pay for new-vehicle projects in the face of heavy losses, asked approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell up to $1 billion of preference stock in several issues in coming weeks.

Analysts said the fixed-rate shares would likely offer a dividend rate in the 8% range, a lure for investors in today’s low interest rate climate. The shares are similar to preferred stock.

A year ago, GM sold $750 million worth of a different type of preference share.

Since January, it has borrowed and sold equity in the company to raise about $5.4 billion.

The credit rating agencies have been demanding that GM shore up its balance sheet, which the latest plan helps to accomplish because it won’t add debt.

GM, its management in upheaval and finances in disarray, lost $4.45 billion last year, including an estimated $7 billion on its North American car and truck business.

It recently reported a $753-million loss for its third quarter.

“It’s a reasonably painless way to raise capital for new-model development,” said analyst David Healy at S. G. Warburg & Co. in New York.

Tuesday’s announcement suggests that the company’s accelerating campaign to slash costs by closing plants, eliminating jobs and restructuring operations hasn’t yet made a major dent in its financial picture.

The auto company’s repeated trips to Wall Street “do not reflect favorably on GM’s ability to control costs,” said an analyst who requested anonymity.

Meanwhile, GM is likely facing big one-time charges against earnings in the fourth quarter to pay for another round of employee buyouts and plant closings.

The SEC filing, which said GM will use the money for general corporate purposes, is the latest development in a yearlong corporate drama that saw the company’s chairman and three other top executives ousted last month.

But the timing, two days before an important meeting of GM’s new leadership with investment analysts, might make for a festive mood.

The offering is liable to deposit more than $65 million in fees into Wall Street’s coffers.