General Motors posts $3.3-billion loss on one-time charges

General Motors (GM) failed to replicate its smaller rival Ford Motors in reporting a first-quarter profit, but did manage to cut losses considerably below analysts' estimates. This was due to rising sales in the growing economies of Asia and Latin America even as corresponding figures for the home market were on the decline.

Even though GM posted a net loss of $3.3 billion, or $5.74 per share, one-time losses of $1.45 billion from financing arm GMAC and $731 million in bankruptcy support for auto parts manufacturer Delphi must temper this result.

Leaving these asides, the figures were more respectable at a loss of $350 million, or 62 cents per share. This is GM's third straight quarterly deficit and compares with a profit of $62 million, or 11 cents, for the same period last year. Analysts had predicted a deeper loss of about $1.60 per share. Sales fell 1.6 per cent to $42.7 billion, but they topped analysts' forecasts of $40.8 billion.

In contrast, Ford had posted profits of $100 million only last week, and Toyota motors announced that it had beaten GM to become the world's leading car company in terms of total units sold globally. (See: Ford confounds analysts, posts $100 million profit in first quarter)

General Motors  also suffered a 10 per cent fall in the US sales, even as Toyota sold 2.41 million vehicles during the first three months of the year, an increase of 2.7 per cent as compared to GM, who sold 2.25 million vehicles over the period, which is 1 per cent lower than in  the previous year.(See: Toyota overtakes GM in Q1 2008 auto sales

Due to the better-than-expected results even after the losses, price of GM shares rose by 4.3 per cent in pre-market trading. The stock had lost close to 15 per cent of its value this year.