New York - US automotive giant General Motors Co reported Monday it lost 1.2 billion dollars in the third quarter of 2009, beating analysts' expectations and saying the company now had a "solid foundation" for its restructuring effort. In its first financial report after it emerged from bankruptcy, GM said it actually earned 1.5 billion dollars before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and special items.
GM also announced that it would begin repayment on a 6.7-billion-dollar US government loan in December.
GM President and Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson hailed the figures but expressed caution about the tasks still ahead.
"We have significantly more work to do, but today's results provide evidence of the solid foundation we are building for the new GM," Henderson said.
In a press conference, Henderson said the losses, while unsatisfactory, were "certainly better than our plans going into bankruptcy." The quarterly results showed "some signs of progress, some signs of stability."
The company, reorganizing after its bankruptcy amid the economic crisis, said revenues totalled 28 billion dollars in the quarter, some 5 billion dollars above the preceding three-month period.
Since 2005 the Detroit, Michigan-based GM has lost at least 90 billion dollars, with its situation deteriorating to the point of the company having to file bankruptcy and receive massive federal credit and outright support.
Henderson said GM would begin in December making quarterly payments of one billion dollars to Washington, putting it on track to pay off the 6.7-billion-dollar state loan by mid-2011. It was possible GM could repay the full money back by a mid-point deadline of June 2010.
In addition, GM will also start repaying Canada's 1.4 billion dollar credit at a rate of 200 million dollars per quarter.
The 6.7-billion-dollar credit is not part of the more than 50 billion dollars in state support which GM got from Washington, for which the US got a 60 per cent majority stake in the company.
Henderson said the newly-reorganized GM was hoping to return to the stock market - which would allow the government to sell its shares - by the second half of next year.
