GM to hit recording revenue, profit in Q4

GENERAL Motors Corp said it will announce record fourth-quarter revenue and a profit, after a restatement to correct five years of reporting errors.

GM last week abandoned a planned release tomorrow of fourth-quarter results, without setting a new date. The auto maker said it's working on restatements involving deferred tax liabilities, hedging and other items for 2002 through the third quarter of 2006 as well as results from its former finance unit, according to Bloomberg News.

Signs that Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner's plan to end losses at the car maker are working may allay investors concerns over accounting errors. The latest delay comes after the auto maker restated results back to 2000 last year. Only one quarter in the past eight hasn't been restated or adjusted.

"We're actually very, very impressed with what we're seeing going on," William Smith, who manages US$70 million in assets including GM shares, at New York-based Smith Asset Management. "You're going to have record revenues, first of all. This is coming from a company that only a year ago people were talking about bankruptcy."

The fourth-quarter results will include the two months of earnings from the General Motors Acceptance Corp finance unit, GM spokesman Randy Arickx said. GM sold a majority stake in the unit on November 30.

It would be GM's second profitable quarter in 2006, after five straight losses that began in the fourth quarter of 2004. The results for the quarter will be "significantly" better than the year-earlier net loss of US$6.66 billion, GM said. The company didn't say how much its profit will be.

Chief Financial Officer Fritz Henderson said on a conference call that the company can't say when it will release the fourth-quarter and 2006 results. The company still plans to meet a March 1 deadline for filing the annual report with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.