Ford Motor Company reported healthy profit gains in the third quarter and announced that its was paying down debt at a faster clip than earlier planned.
The U.S.-based auto company reported net earnings of $1.7 billion, or 43 cents per share for the third quarter ending September 10, compared with last year's profits of 29 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting 41 cents per share. Ford Motor ( F - news - people ) profits gained 29% from the third quarter last year.
Revenue declined $1.3 billion year over year to $29 billion, reflecting the sale of the company's Volvo brand to Chinese carmaker Geely in August for $1.5 billion. Analysts were expecting revenue of $27.83 billion.
The company says it is on track to achieve 15.9% market share in the U.S. this year, up from 14.6% last year following the bankruptcies and reorganizations of General Motors and Chrysler, the two other major American auto makers.
Ford reported profits in almost every global market this quarter. South America produced a pre-tax operating profit of $241 million, compared with $247 million last year. Emerging markets reflected sales growth of 28 % in the Asia Pacific Africa region, leading to pre-tax operating profits of $30 million, compared with $22 million last year. Ford North America reported third quarter pre-tax operating profit of $1.6 billion, a $1.3 billion improvement from last year.
The company announced it would pay down its revolving credit line by $2 billion this year, and prepay the remaining $3.6 billion of debt owed to the VEBA retiree health care trust. As of Sept. 30, Ford?s total automotive debt was $26.4 billion.
?The key drivers for improvement in 2011 will be our growing product strength, a gradually strengthening economy and an unrelenting focus on improving the competitiveness of all our operations,? said CEO Alan Mulally.
Ford Credit posted a gain this quarter with a pre-tax operating profit of $766 million, an $89 million improvement from last year. The company also announced that it would add 2,000 hourly jobs to its U.S. plants this year.
?Our performance through the first nine months has clearly exceeded our initial expectations and is enabling us to make additional significant balance sheet improvements in the fourth quarter,? said Lewis Booth, Ford executive vice president and chief financial officer.
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