General Motors Corp.’s bondholders presented a counteroffer to President Barack Obama’s auto task force to give them control of the carmaker being propped up with $15.4 billion in federal loans, Bloomberg reported.

The plan would “avoid a lengthy and difficult bankruptcy process that would hurt all stakeholders, employees and customers,” and give bondholders a 58 percent stake in GM, according to a statement released Thursday. Bondholders had rejected GM’s April 27 debt exchange offer to swap their claims for a 10-percent stake in the reorganized company.

GM has said 90 percent of bondholders owning $27 billion must tender their holdings by June 1 or it will be forced to file for a government-supported bankruptcy. The ad hoc committee representing big bondholders said the counteroffer would save U.S. taxpayers $10 billion in cash, Bloomberg reported.

GM made its proposed debt exchange conditional on a United Auto Workers retiree-medical fund trading half of its claims for stock, for as much as a 39 percent equity stake. That plan also envisions the government converting some of its loans to shares, giving the U.S. 50 percent of the country’s biggest automaker.