Investors representing about 54 percent of General Motors Corp's $27.2 billion of bonds indicated support for a U.S. Treasury-brokered swap that could help speed the automaker's way through bankruptcy.

Elliot Sloane, a spokesman for an ad hoc committee that represents about a dozen big GM bondholders, also said investors representing 19 percent of GM bonds indicated new support for the swap proposal before Saturday's deadline.

A total of 975 institutions either sent letters of support or gave indications that they would support the swap as well, Sloane said.

(Reporting by Walden Siew and Kevin Krolicki, writing by David Bailey)