Bill Ford sees sunnier days after weathering '07 storms

Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said Friday he welcomes General Motors Co.'s plans to begin selling its stock and doesn't see it as a threat to his own company's stock price.

"To the extent that we have been the only one available in the sector, I am sure that some of the money will be rebalanced into GM," Bill Ford told reporters at an event hosted by radio station WWJ as part of the Woodward Dream Cruise.

Ford has been the only publicly traded U.S. automaker since GM emerged from bankruptcy in July 2009 as a private company. GM hopes to have its initial public offering of stock yet this year; Chrysler Group LLC is not likely to go public with its stock for at least another year.

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Bill Ford said automakers' success will be based on their performance. "It doesn't make any difference to me where our shares are, or their shares are, on any given day," he said.

Paying down its debt, to return the automaker to investment grade, remains a Ford priority and the effort is ahead of schedule, he said.

The Dearborn-based automaker earned $4.7 billion in the first half of the year, and it hopes to negotiate a UAW contract next year that is on par with those of the other organized automakers.

"We're already talking," Bill Ford said. "You never stop talking."

The great-grandson of automotive pioneer Henry Ford said he called GM's incoming CEO, Daniel Akerson, last week to wish him luck and to invite him to lunch once Akerson has settled into his new duties.

In a wide-ranging discussion before a breakfast audience of 250, Bill Ford was frank about his company's trials and tribulations, and his own determination to not let employees get cocky or complacent, now that things are looking up.

He said the angst his family went through three years ago, and the company's decision not to follow GM and Chrysler in accepting a government bailout, are paying off today. Continued product development, Bill Ford said, helped the company weather dark days.

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