Ford Motor Company posted a fourth quarter loss of $5.5 billion today. Ford finished 2008 with cash reserves of $13.4 billion and is the only one of the Big Three automakers that has not taken any federal loans. Ford said it will immediately take $10.1 billion out of its capital reserves because of the state of the economy and the uncertainty in the credit markets.
“Ford and the entire auto industry faced an extraordinary slowdown in all major global markets in the fourth quarter that clearly had an impact on our results,” CEO Alan Mulally said in a statement. Ford’s fourth quarter loss in 2007 was $620 million, making this year’s fourth quarter loss nearly ten times greater. Ford insisted it still has adequate cash reserves to weather 2009 and believes its ‘burn rate’ will slow down as 2009 progresses. Ford says its current cash reserves stand at about $26 billion.
Tags: Alan Mulally, Auto Bailout, Ford