Posted on 02/29/2012 3:51:28 AM PST by tobyhill
General Motors earned its largest profit ever in 2011, two years after it nearly collapsed into financial ruin.
Strong sales in the U.S. and China helped the 103-year-old carmaker turn a profit of $7.6 billion, beating its old record of $6.7 billion in 1997 during the pickup truck and SUV boom.
GM is a vastly different company than it was back then. It’s smaller, has less debt and its contract with the United Auto Workers is less costly. But it took a government bailout and a trip through bankruptcy protection in 2009 to cut its bloated costs. The company made record money last year even though U.S. auto sales were near historic lows at 12.8 million cars and trucks.
But problems surfaced in its latest results. GM lost $700 million before taxes in Europe, and its South American operations lost $100 million. Sales growth slowed in the U.S. in the fourth quarter, even as more Americans bought cars and trucks.
GM’s stock price fell 43 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $24.50 in pre-market trading.
The U.S. government still owns 26.5 percent of the company and is waiting for the share price to rise before selling in an effort to recoup the bailout money.
(Excerpt) Read more at nation.foxnews.com ...
dealers lots are overflowing....sales from companies to dealers are good....not so much from dealers to buyers.
Meanwhile Obama demolishes the market for US cars, with his gas prices.
Buying votes is all Obama has to get reelected.
The sales are mostly on the dealer’s lots. Sales, pre-Obama, used to be sales to consumers, now they consider it a sale as soon as it leaves the plant.
More COOKING the books. SURPRISE SURPRISE
I will NEVER buy another GM BarryMobile again!
I thought GM didn’t have to pay taxes for the next 5 years. Easy to turn a profit if you forego taxes.
This was the plan all along.
Anybody can make a profit if you don’t have to pay 35% tax rates like every other company in the USSA. Thanks to the Glorious Premier.
Pray for America
Tax free profits
Cheap loans
Defaulted bonds
EASY BUTTON
But I think FASB forbids ‘booking’ sales to dealers. It is no different than booking ‘shipments to the warehouse’.
I thought GM didn’t have to pay taxes for the next 5 years. Easy to turn a profit if you forego taxes.
And let's not forget screwing over all those "protected" bond holders, which GM didn't have to pay back after the Obama regime broke the US bankruptcy laws in order to gift their money to the UAW.
It's also easy to turn a profit when you don't have to pay your debts.
Amazing to me that they didn't have a much better year, given all the advantages GM had.
Mark
“This was the plan all along.”
And maybe now GM actually prefers the U.S. government owning 26.5 percent of the company. Their corporate culture is so steeped in political correctness that they might as well be wholly owned by the government.
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