Ford Motor Co. is in “good shape financially” and has enough funding for its restructuring plan, chief executive Alan Mulally said as he nears his first anniversary in the job.
Ford, the second-largest U.S. automaker, has “appropriate liquidity” after borrowing $23.4 billion last year, he said in an interview Wednesday in New York.
The company had a record loss of $12.6 billion last year. Ford, based in Dearborn, Mich., is cutting jobs and closing plants in North America to return to profit in its home market in 2009.
“Getting back to profitability is the first step,” said Mulally, 62, who marks a year as CEO on Saturday.
The automaker recruited him from Boeing Co., where he was chief of the commercial-aircraft unit. Mulally is working to reduce Ford’s dependence on pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles, its main source of profits in the 1990s. Declining U.S. sales of those models was a major reason for the 2006 loss.
Mulally said tighter credit is affecting U.S. auto sales. He didn’t specifically call for the Federal Reserve Board to cut interest rates, saying U.S. policymakers need to “stabilize markets.”
Ford shares rose 21 cents to $7.72 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading Wednesday. They have gained 2.8 percent this year.
The company had a surprise $750 million second-quarter profit as savings from job reductions and other cost cuts began to accumulate. The quarterly profit was its first in two years. Ford said it would have losses in the second half.
Ford estimates it will spend $15 billion to $16 billion of the money it borrowed in 2006 while continuing to develop new models.
