GM CFO: Company has a “reasonable chance to become profitable this year”

General Motors has a reasonable chance to become profitable this year, according to new Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell. In a recent interview with reporters at the Renaissance Center, Liddell discussed the efforts that GM is making to sell shares to become a publicly traded company.

The press meeting was a coming out party for Liddell, an ex-Microsoft executive who has kept a low media profile since being hired in December by Chairman and CEO Edward Whitacre.

Liddell is also viewed as the CEO-in-the-making by many analysts and is seen as someone who is focused on improving GM’s reputation and financial organization.

At the press conference, Liddell said that he disagrees with the members of President Obama’s auto task force that said, prior to the company’s bankruptcy filing, GM’s financial organization was among the worst they’d seen at a large corporation.

“The financial organization here is not as bad as what was characterized,” Liddell said. “I’m not going to say it’s perfect and can’t be improved. All I can say is, the people I’ve inherited, who report to me, I think are actually very good. These situations are never as good or as bad as they look from the outside.”

– By: Omar Rana

Source: The Detroit News