GM Lost $4.3b In The Second Half Of 2009


GM has announced its “fresh-start” post-bankruptcy accounting results, and between July and December of last year, the bailed-out automaker lost $4.3b [press release here, full numbers here, in PDF format]. The loss comes despite $57.5b in global revenue, and $1b in “net cash provided by operating activities.” According to GM’s release:
The $4.3 billion net loss includes the pre-tax impact of a $2.6 billion settlement loss related to the UAW retiree medical plan and a $1.3 billion foreign currency re-measurement loss.
Of course, you have to dig into the numbers to find the bad news, like the $56.4b in “cost of sales,” or the $700m interest cost, or the 48 percent North American capacity utilization in 2009, or the 16.3 percent US car market share. Which is why we’ve included the consolidated statement of operations, consolidated balance sheets and more, for your no-download-necessary perusal, after the jump.



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- Prabirmehta Great review! Brought back memories of my 2005 Z4 - loved it! I recently drove the 2023 Z4 and it felt similar in many ways to my 2005 (despite the much nicer and updated interior). Now your review has me rethinking whether to buy another one? :)
- Haruhi Where’s this exact location
- ToolGuy This is a good approach and a nice writeup, but it shows Tim Healey as the author. Who wrote it?
- FreedMike Race car drivers are all alpha-types. Aggression is part of the deal. I think you see more of that stuff in NASCAR because crashes - the end result of said aggression - are far more survivable than they would be in F1 or IndyCar.
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While I continue, during casual conversations, and the opportunity allows it, inform others of my 2004 decision to assist the "home team" by buying a Ft. Wayne-made Chevy truck and how several dealers AND corporate GMC spat upon me by refusing to even make a honest attempt at diagnosing several of the defects that negatively affected the truck and that added several thousand dollars of indirect cost to the total "cost of ownership" during the warranty period (lost time/wages, car rentals, etc)
they still have to invest in the business - so a run rate of $2b per year cash from operating and forecast cap ex of $6b (cap ex was $7.5b in '07 & '08) results negative free cash flow. But yeah, "favorable managed working capital of $4.3 billion primarily driven by the effect of increased sales and production on accounts payable and the timing of certain supplier payments" = no cash burn from operations...