General Motors Posts Loss In U.S., Profits Rise Overseas
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General Motors Corp., the world’s largest automaker, posted a fourth-quarter loss on shrinking sales in North America while overseas revenue rose.
GM reported a loss of $722 million, or $1.28 a share, after a year-earlier net income of $950 million, or $1.68. The Detroit- based company had a profit after excluding one-time items, and automotive revenue rose 7% to $46.7 billion, helped by gains in China and Brazil. The results suggest the chief executive officer, Rick Wagoner, is delivering on his goal to lift overseas sales while cutting expenses at home. He said he’ll offer buyouts to speed the hiring of lower-paid workers in America, where industry-wide sales are projected to fall to a 10-year low in 2008.
“Wagoner is doing the right things; he’s just doing them at a time when the economy might be masking some of the favorable benefits,” a Morgan Keegan & Co. fixed-income analyst in Memphis, Tenn., Pete Hastings, said. Buyouts for up to 74,000 United Auto Workers members would be “money well spent,” he said.
Not counting costs and gains the company considers one-time, GM reported an adjusted profit of $46 million, or 8 cents a share. On that basis, analysts estimated a loss of 64 cents. In North America, GM lost $1.1 billion.
