Tuesday, Jun. 02, 2009
Rising Obligations Begin to Sink GM
2004: In October 2004, credit-rating services, noting GM's increasing pension, health-care and financing liabilities, downgrade the company to the low end of the investment-grade category. GM then borrows more than $16 billion for corporate purposes through a shelf registration that had been in place since 1995. GM is also beefing up its mortgage-lending business through GMAC, which accounts for a rising share of company profits. GM is still paying out more than $1.2 billion in dividends and needs an additional $2.4 billion for a contribution to employee pension funds as it reports net income of $3.6 billion. It was the last year GM reported a profit. GM lost its investment-grade credit rating in the spring of 2005.