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GM plans to delay reimbursement

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-19 07:56

General Motors Corp, seeking low-interest federal loans to stave off financial collapse, said it will delay reimbursing US dealers for sales incentives by about two weeks to preserve its dwindling cash.

The move postpones payments to almost 6,500 dealers even as the largest US automaker urges them to lobby Congress for the $25 billion industry bailout bill that Senate Democrats began debating on Monday. GM said it won't disclose the savings.

"It is indicative of the impact that low liquidity has on this company," Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with IHS Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts, said in an interview. "This could really hamstring dealerships from getting more inventory, making payroll. It's a very serious action." Holding onto the money gave GM a third example to show lawmakers in its efforts to boost cash. The company said the 2007 labor accord has trimmed annual costs by $500 million and that Suzuki Motor Corp would buy back GM's 3 percent stake.

GM's US dealers paid about $3,409 in incentives for each car and truck in October, when the company sold 168,719 vehicles, according to research firm Autodata Corp of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. At that rate, Detroit-based GM would have spent $575 million. GM doesn't announce incentive spending.

"This action by GM is really symbolic of the severe cash crisis the company's going through right now," Geoff Pohanka, owner of Pohanka Automotive Group, which has five GM dealerships in Maryland and Virginia, said in an interview. "We appreciate the cash flow ourselves and the delay is of great concern."