Ford Has $15 Billion In Cash As Burn Appears To Ease
08 Januar 2009 - 7:33PM
Dow Jones News
Ford Motor Co. (F) said Thursday that it has $15 billion in cash
on hand in an apparent sign that the auto maker's liquidity squeeze
is easing.
Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally revealed the position in an
interview with Fox Business Network.
The second-largest U.S. automaker burned through $7.7 billion in
cash during the third quarter to Sept. 30 last year and finished
the period with $18.9 billion on hand.
The company has yet to report fourth-quarter results, but
Mulally's remark suggests the company's monthly cash burn narrowed
to $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter compared with $2.5 billion
per month in the previous three months.
"We're very conscious of cash, and we focused all of our
investments and all of our daily operations," Mulally said in the
interview.
"We're working very closely with our suppliers and our payables,
and we are managing that cash because cash right now is so
important to finance this [Ford's] transformation."
Cash burn has pushed rivals such as General Motors Corp. (GM)
and Chrysler LLC (C.XX) to seek low-cost loans from the federal
government in order to survive.
Ford has passed on the loans for now.
By Jeff Bennett, Dow Jones Newswires; 248-204-5532;
jeff.bennett@dowjones.com
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