"The focus is on improving the business."
Jeff Green and Katie Merx -
BLOOMBERG - July 23, 2009
Ford is definitely earning a good reputation here. --Ed.
Ford Motor Co., the only U.S. automaker to decline a federal bailout, posted a second-quarter loss that beat analysts’ estimates as Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally pared expenses and added domestic market share.
The deficit excluding costs that Ford considers one-time items was $638 million, or 21 cents a share, narrower than the 50-cent average of 12 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Net income was $2.26 billion, or 69 cents a share, on accounting gains related to reducing debt, Ford said today in a statement.
Avoiding a rescue helped Ford report a smaller domestic sales drop than General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC. Mulally, 63, steered the Dearborn, Michigan-based company through the worst auto market since the early 1980s with a cash cushion after borrowing $23 billion in late 2006.
“Mulally’s largely achieved all of the benefits that Chrysler and GM received in bankruptcy without a bankruptcy,” said John Wolkonowicz, an IHS Global Insight analyst in Lexington, Massachusetts. “He has truly streamlined that company and it will be competitive with the formerly bankrupt companies.”
Ford chopped cash use to $1 billion from $3.7 billion in the first three months of the year, leaving cash from automotive operations at $21 billion. Revenue fell to $27.2 billion from $38.2 billion.
‘Plan Is Working’
“Despite the really tough economic environment, the plan is working,” Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth told reporters today at Ford’s headquarters. “Our results are showing up in...
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