General Motors Company (GM) Profits Rise as Europe Weighs Heavily

GM’s international operations division, which includes major operations in China, India, and Russia, earned $473 million before taxes, up from $373 million a year ago. GM had a solid year in China, the world’s largest car market, where it posted a 11% sales gain. That was enough for GM to hold on to the country’s sales crown in 2012 despite mounting pressure from Volkswagen.

Outlook for 2013: continued improvement
2013 is on track to be a big, big year for GM. A slew of important new products are set to debut, including all-new full-sized pickups, a new Chevy Impala, and a replacement for the CTS, Cadillac’s bread-and-butter midsized luxury sedan.

Each of those debuts will require careful execution in marketing and manufacturing and logistics, and the potential for chaos is high. It will be a real test of new, improved GM’s ability to execute – and the company’s success (or lack thereof) in managing these launches will be a telling sign of the state of its overhaul.

Elsewhere, signs continue to be promising. GM said on Thursday that it did not expect to have to make mandatory contributions to its U.S. pension plans for “at least 5 years,” good news on an issue that has concerned many investors for awhile. And the company expects taxes and overall capital expenditures to be about the same as in 2012.

The article GM Profits Rise as Europe Weighs Heavily originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by John Rosevear.

Fool contributor John Rosevear owns shares of General Motors and Ford. Follow him on Twitter at @jrosevear. The Motley Fool owns shares of Ford. Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Ford and General Motors.

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