Tue, Jan 12, 2010 page10

• New GM a ‘powerhouse’

  THE PHOENIX RISES The US carmaker emerged from bankruptcy protection with lower fixed costs, an almost debt-free balance sheet and a better labor situation

  • AFP
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  The post-bankruptcy General Motors (GM) is a “powerhouse” of an carmaker with a bright future and the capacity to achieve rich profits, vice chairman Bob Lutz said on Sunday.

  “There were times in the past year or 18 months when it became perilously close to being over for GM but now, as this new decade begins, our future ain’t what it used to be because it is in fact much, much brighter,” Lutz said on the eve of the Detroit auto show.

  “The new GM, in my view, is a powerhouse,” he said.

  General Motors emerged from bankruptcy protection last year with radically lower fixed costs, an “essentially debt-free balance sheet,” a “new and more competitive labor situation,” an “outstanding” product portfolio and more focused after shedding four of its eight brands, Lutz said.

  “We’re finally in a position from a financial structure where we should be — at anything remotely resembling normal demand — we really should be solidly profitable,” Lutz told the Society for Automotive Analysts’ annual conference.

  “It is kind of the phoenix rises from the ashes because this is the first time when we can deploy the full power of GM without the burden of all those horrible legacy cost and the crushing debt load that’s all gone now. Now we’re under a new ownership and a much, much healthier company,” he said.
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