CHICAGO, USA (AFP) — General Motors reported a post-bankruptcy 2009 net loss of US$4.3 billion Wednesday, but said it was encouraged by the results and hoped to achieve profitability in 2010.

The new GM, which emerged from bankruptcy protection on July 10, said it aims to repay its government loans by June “at the latest” so it can launch an initial public stock offering “as soon as it makes sense”.

“As the results for 2009 show, there is still significant work to be done,” said Chris Liddell, GM vice chairman and chief financial officer.

But GM is very close to breaking even after making enormous strides in slashing its operating costs and improving its product portfolio, Liddell said.

“We don’t need to make that much of an improvement to get to profitability,” Liddell said in a conference call with analysts and the media.

“I’m very happy with the progress we’ve made in the first quarter,” he added, cautioning that he would “rather under-promise and hopefully over-deliver.”

The $4.3-billion loss for the period of July 10 through December 2009 was primarily due to one-off charges recorded in the fourth quarter: a US$2.6-billion settlement loss related to the United Auto Workers union retiree medical plan and a US$1.3-billion loss related to foreign exchange rates.

GM achieved global revenues of US$57.5 billion for the period and ended the year with net cash from operations of $1 billion.

Liddell cautioned that under “fresh-start” accounting standards — which reset the valuation of assets and liabilities — the results are not directly comparable to those posted by the old GM.

The largest US automaker managed to slash its liabilities by US$83 billion as a result of the government-funded bankruptcy restructuring and ended the year with $36.2 billion in cash and marketable securities.

Its global market share slipped to 11.6 per cent from 12.4 per cent in 2008, due in part to the sale or elimination of four of its eight vehicle brands: Hummer, Saab, Saturn, and Pontiac.

Its global vehicle sales fell to 7.5 million vehicles in 2009 from 8.4 million a year earlier amid a broad economic downturn, GM said.

The outlook for 2010 is improving. GM’s US auto sales rose 16.8 per cent to 475,253 vehicles in the first quarter as its market share expanded by 0.2 points to 18.7 percent, according to Autodata.

GM, which has not made a profit since 2004 and has shuttered scores of factories and laid off tens of thousands of workers, had lost $88 billion before it sought bankruptcy protection on June 1.

The US government, which provided about $50 billion in emergency loans, holds a 60.8 percent stake in the new company.

“We are building the foundation that will allow us to return to public ownership,” Liddell said, adding that he was “incredibly encouraged with the progress I’ve seen.”

He cautioned that the timing of the stock offering will be affected by the “readiness of the financial markets and the state of the global auto industry”.

Another key financial goal is to return the company to a “strong investment-grade credit rating”, he added.

“That will likely take some years, but will provide us with the sustainable financial strength to prosper in good times and survive in tough ones,” he said.

“General Motors should never again be in the position it found itself in last year.”

GM will report first-quarter results in mid-May.