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Daily Bulletin 16 March 2006

The world's largest maker of luxury cars, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) forecasted record annual profit overnight on sales of its new 3-Series sedans. Pretax profit for FY06 will rise 22% to $4B euros (US$4.8B). As a result its stock price rose 5.3% to its highest in almost four years on Germany's benchmark DAX index. BMW overtook DaimlerChrysler AG's Mercedes- Benz division as the world's biggest luxury carmaker a year ago, and widened its lead through 2005, with the introduction of the 1-Series small car, the X3 sport-utility vehicle and a new version of the 3-Series.


March 17, 2006
G.M. Loss for 2005 Is Steeper
By JEREMY W. PETERS

DETROIT, March 16
General Motors on Thursday reported a revised and steeper loss for 2005, increasing the amount to $10.6 billion, or $2 billion more than it reported in January.

G.M. said the revision was the result of higher costs of scaling back its North American operations and of helping its former parts subsidiary, Delphi, restructure while in bankruptcy protection.

The automaker said it would also restate five previous years of results and delay filing its annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a few weeks while it looks into accounting irregularities at its residential mortgage unit.

The announcement is the latest trouble for G.M. and its chief executive, Rick Wagoner. It comes as G.M. has been struggling to control losses and try to regain some of its eroding market share in North America. In addition, Mr. Wagoner has come under pressure from large investors led by the billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, whose associate, Jerome B. York, recently joined the G.M. board.

In a statement late Thursday, G.M. said it would raise the charge for helping Delphi restructure to $3.6 billion from $2.3 billion, a sign that there had been progress in talks with its former subsidiary and the United Automobile Workers union.

But a G.M. spokeswoman, Toni Simonetti, said, "It's not a declaration of a resolution."

On Wednesday, U.A.W. officials said they were making progress in negotiating early retirement packages at Delphi. G.M.'s reluctance to help pay for those packages has been a sticking point in the talks.

G.M. said a reason for recording a bigger loss in 2005 was because of the cost it faces for its own downsizing.

G.M. will increase its North American restructuring charge to $1.7 billion, from $1.3 billion, to reflect the higher costs of closing factories. Last year, G.M. announced it would cut 30,000 factory jobs and close all or part of a dozen plants through 2008.

The restructuring costs include early retirement packages for unionized workers and payments to workers in the company's jobs bank, a program that guarantees full pay for workers whose factories have been shut down. G.M. has about 7,500 workers in its jobs bank, and more workers will flow in as the company closes more plants.

G.M. will also take a $439 million charge that was initially booked at the finance arm, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, but will now be booked at the corporate level.

Besides looking into the company's accounting of its pension and retiree health care funds, the S.E.C. is looking at whether G.M. improperly accounted for certain transactions with Delphi just before and after the parts subsidiary was spun off in 1999.

"With the S.E.C. digging around, I think it's forcing G.M. to be even more careful with its accounting," said John A. Casesa, managing partner at Casesa Strategic Advisors, a consulting firm. "It's simply a reflection of the scrutiny that the S.E.C. is putting G.M. under."

This is the second time in four months G.M. has restated earnings. In November, G.M. said it had overstated its 2001 results by as much as $400 million, or 35 percent. The company said it had improperly recorded payments from some of its suppliers.