In a recent interview with Bloomberg Television, GM CEO Dan Akerson said that The General is in the “best fighting trim” in five decades to handle a global slowdown.
“Prior to bankruptcy we had almost $40 billion in debt and were limited to almost no cash,” Akerson said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Shanghai last week. “Today we have minimal debt and about $34-$35 billion in cash. I would argue we are in the best fighting trim we have been in since probably the 1960s.”
It’s this $34-35 billion in cash that is permitting General Motors to heavily invest in Research and Development while expanding the competitiveness of its product portfolio.
The GM Authority Take
Sure, GM may be in the best fighting shape of the last half century… on paper. If anything, though, it still has a moral debt to repay to the American taxpayer, with many citizens vouching to never buy a GM product due to the bailout.
Here’s our question: do you think that those squarely set against the bailout would ease their stance if the government ended up breaking even or turning a profit on the transaction?
For that to happen, GM’s stock price would have to trade upwards of $50 (at current share distribution) for the government to collect the remaining $25 billion that it hasn’t yet recouped from The General’s orchestrated salvation.
Source: Bloomberg
Comments
The “social debt” angle is one of the reason that the Cruze’s knockout performance has absolutely stunned me. I never thought GM could come back so quickly, even with a car as good as that one. Then again, Toyota took the lead back from the Cruze, and I didn’t think THEY would come back as quickly as they did either. I think it just goes to show how short a memory most Americans have.
As far as the stock goes, I don’t see the price going up until the whole market goes up – and the US sells its shares. The price won’t truly reach its “normal” level until the government sells its shares off. Who in their right mind would invest in a company before the holder of a massive chunk sells? As soon as they do, the value will tank. That’s stock 101, and an unfortunate catch 22 for the government.
I say sell now while everyone is focused on the (stupid) Solyndra debacle.
Good point.
On a side note, the Corolla hasn’t taken the lead from the Cruze. In September, the Cruze sold a tad over 18,000 units, while Corolla moved 16,147 (including Matrix).
As a side note I really didn’t like Atkerson when he first took charge, but a lot of his recent decisions are starting to make me think that he might not be a lost cause.
I also didn’t like Akerson when he became CEO, now I think that he is a decent man,and when you see that a CEO of the company makes large investments in the company that he works for, it show that this person cares about the company he works for and see’s a bright future for this company. I feel like we’ll a industry leading products in the near future, in my opinion “old GM” way too greedy to make industry leading products and what people actually want. Hope this wont happen with new GM.
Right on. Now how about that Cruze SS/Z-Spec! 🙂
I just don’t really like how they have to skip the performance lineup of the GM product in regular cars i.e. Sonic, Cruze, Bu