The struggling Ford Motor Co on Thursday reported a loss of 12.7 billion dollars for 2006, the worst loss in its history, due to large restructuring costs as it seeks to revive its operations and vehicle sales.
Ford's finances also worsened as it sought to ward off fierce competition from Japanese automakers like Toyota in the United States and after it made a net profit of 1.4 billion dollars in 2005.
The US carmaker's losses last year included heavy provisions for its hard-hitting restructuring plan, which foresees 16 plant closures in North America and the elimination of 45,000 jobs by 2008. Ford reported a full year earnings per share loss of 6.79 dollars and a quarterly loss of 3.05 dollars. Excluding certain charges, however, the quarterly loss equated to a worse-than-expected 1.10 dollars per share. Most Wall Street analysts had anticipated a quarterly loss of just 1.01 dollars per share.
The Michigan-headquartered automaker said restructuring and other costs had weighed down earnings by almost 10 billion dollars last year. During the fourth-quarter of last year Ford said it lost 5.8 billion dollars compared with a loss of 74 million dollars in the same period of 2005. Top executives said, however, that they remained confident the storied but challenged US auto-maker could return to profitability no later than 2009.
"We began aggressive actions in 2006 to restructure our automotive business so we can operate profitably at lower volumes and with a product mix that better reflects consumer demand for smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles," said Ford chief executive Alan Mulally.
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