General Motors Posts Profit on Strong Trucks Sales
May 06 2020 - 8:54AM
Dow Jones News
By Mike Colias
General Motors Co. reported a $292 million net profit in the
first quarter despite a big hit from Covid-19 fallout, as strong
pickup-trucks sales and restructuring before the crisis helped it
avoid quarterly losses suffered by its Detroit rivals.
GM said Wednesday its pretax profit, excluding one-time items,
was $1.25 billion for the first quarter, down 46% from the
previous-year period. The company cited a $1.4 billion impact from
the pandemic, which forced the closure of factories in China for
much of the quarter, as well as about 10 days of downtime in North
America.
Pretax earnings per share was 62 cents, better than analysts'
estimate of 40 cents per share, according to FactSet.
The company said earnings-per-share were reduced by 28 cents
because of lower values of its stakes in ride-hailing firm Lyft
Inc. and French auto maker PSA Group.
The auto maker said its net-income results were hurt by
restructuring costs in Australia and Thailand. Revenue fell 6% to
$32.7 billion. GM swung to a $167 million loss in China, from a
$376 million profit a year earlier.
GM shares rose about 3% in premarket trading Wednesday.
GM's pretax profit in North America -- one of its largest sales
regions -- rose 16% to $2.2 billion amid sharply higher sales of
large pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles. The company closed
its roughly three dozen U.S. factories around March 20 amid the
worsening Covid-19 outbreak.
The company said Wednesday it is working with the United Auto
Workers union on factory safety protocols and is targeting a May 18
restart date for the majority of its manufacturing operations in
the U.S. and Canada. The Wall Street Journal had previously
reported the reopening timeline.
Write to Mike Colias at Mike.Colias@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 06, 2020 08:39 ET (12:39 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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