This morning, General Motors announced a net loss of $9.6 billion for the the fourth quarter of 2008, a whopping $6.4 billion of which can be attributed to ongoing operations. Another $3.7 billion reflects one-time charges related to restructuring, with a slight $436 million offset coming from changes in accounting. GM’s overall operating loss for 2008 now stands at $16.3 billion — a big jump from the $1.9 billion loss realized in 2007.
Compared to the year-ago quarter, Q4 2008 was $3.2 billion worse in terms of operating loss, while the overall deficit was was $5.2 billion deeper. Fourth quarter special items include a $1.1 billion impairment charge related to Hummer and Saab , a $1.0 billion reduction in the value of deferred tax assets, $900 million for restructuring and capacity-related costs, $660 million to Delphi’s pension obligations, and a $610 million goodwill impairment.
Overall, the automaker reported a $30.9 billion net loss for 2008.
Overall loss was $30.9 billion, which represents an improvement over 2007′s $43.3 billion figure. Due to slumping sales, revenue was down dramatically for the quarter as well — $30.8 billion for 2008 versus $46.8 billion for 2007. That said, the company’s market share also took a small tumble, falling from 22.7 percent to 21.0 percent in the United States. GM total revenue in 2008 was $149 billion, compared with $180 billion in 2007. Global industry sales in 2008 were down 5 percent, or 3.6 million vehicles, versus 2007 levels, and U.S. industry sales fell by 18 percent, or nearly 3 million units.
“2008 was an extremely difficult year for the U.S. and global auto markets, especially the second half, †Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said.“ These conditions created a very challenging environment for GM and other automakers, and led us to take further aggressive and difficult measures to restructure our business.
In the fourth quarter, GMAC Financial Services reported net profit of $7.5 billion, driven largely by the company’s December bond exchange. This compares with a net loss of $724 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. Excluding the $11.4 billion gain on its bond exchange, GMAC’s results in the fourth quarter reflected a net loss of $4.0 billion. GMAC reported net profit of $1.9 billion in 2008, compared with a net loss of $2.3 billion in 2007.
GM reported an adjusted loss of $4.7 billion attributable to GMAC, as a result of its 49 percent equity interest for the year, and an adjusted loss of $1.9 billion for the fourth quarter. This excludes a fourth quarter net gain of $533 million related to GM’s portion of GMAC’s bond exchange gain that was largely offset by an impairment of GM’s investment in GMAC.
