DETROIT — General Motors, the nation’s largest automaker, said on Wednesday that it earned record profit of $9.7 billion in 2015 primarily because of its strong performance in its core North American market.þþThe results were bolstered by special items, including changes in valuations for certain assets, which added $1.5 billion to its overall net income.þþThe valuation adjustments helped G.M. overcome other charges it took last year to settle a Justice Department investigation into defective ignition switches tied to 124 deaths and compensate victims of accidents in the affected vehicles.þþG.M.’s performance represented a marked improvement over its net income of $2.8 billion in 2014.þþThe company’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, said the strong profit would help G.M. add new models and invest in electric vehicles and other new technology.þþ“We continue to strengthen our core business, which is laying the foundation for the company to lead in the transformation of personal mobility,” Ms. Barra said in a statement.þþFor the year, G.M. reported revenue of $152.4 billion, compared with $155.9 billion in 2014. The company said the change was mostly related to the negative impact of currency exchange rates in some markets.þþThe company said that its results in North America were the driving force behind its record performance.þþG.M. said it earned a pretax profit of $11 billion in the region in 2015. Under the terms of its new contract signed last year with the United Automobile Workers union, the results translate into profit-sharing checks of up to $11,000 for each of its 49,000 hourly employees.þþThe automaker had varied results in other global regions, reporting pretax losses of about $800 million in Europe and $600 million in South America, and a pretax profit of $1.4 billion in its international division that includes China.þþFor the fourth quarter of last year, G.M. said it earned net income of $6.3 billion, which represented a significant gain over the $1.1 billion it earned in the same period a year earlier. Earnings per share, after adjusting for certain items, was $1.39, up 17 percent from the fourth quarter of 2014. The per-share figures beat an estimated earnings of $1.20 based on analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.þþThe company posted revenue of $39.6 billion in the fourth quarter, which was about the same as the previous year.
Source: NY Times
