GM tops 2Q profit forecasts on trucks, SUVs

Big profits from trucks and SUVs helped General Motors overcome a sales slowdown in China, economic problems in Venezuela and payments to ignition switch crash victims as the automaker's second-quarter net income rose sixfold to nearly USD 1.12 billion. The Detroit company made 67 cents per share from April through June compared with 11 cents a year ago. The year-earlier quarter included USD 1.5 billion in expenses for a string of safety recalls.

GM's USD 2.8 billion pretax profit in North America was a second-quarter record. The strong profits helped GM distance itself from the recalls. Still, the company raised its estimate for what it will spend to compensate victims of crashes caused by defective ignition switches from USD 600 million to USD 625 million.

Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens called it a final estimate, although GM still faces multiple lawsuits and a potentially large penalty from a Justice Department criminal investigation. GM also said on day that it expects pretax profits to be better in the second half than the first, when it made USD 5 billion. Shares jumped more than 7 percent as the market opened.

Excluding USD 1.1 billion in special items, GM made USD 1.29 per share, handily beating the USD 1.08 average of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research. Among the special items were USD 720 million for currency devaluation and asset write-downs in Venezuela and USD 75 million to compensate ignition switch crash victims. Faulty ignition switches that can unexpectedly shut off engines in older GM small cars are responsible for at least 124 deaths and 269 injuries, according to a fund set up by the company to compensate victims.

GM's sales in China fell 1 percent during the quarter as the market slowed, and its sales increase of 1.9 percent in the US trailed the industry's overall gain. But the company said its sales were highly profitable, with SUVs and pickup trucks bringing in more dollars per vehicle. Kelley Blue Book estimated GM's average US

selling price at USD 37,025 for the quarter, up 3.3 per cent from a year ago. In China, GM introduced two new SUVs during the quarter, helping to boost sales, Stevens said. "Our SUV sales across the business are up more than 80 percent," he said.

The company also cut costs and became more efficient in China, where it will continue to invest in new products despite slowing growth, he said.