GM’s net income more than doubles in April-June

Despite flat global sales in the quarter ended June 2016, General Motors reported strong growth of 157% in its net income at $2.9 billion, in contrast to $1.1 billion reported in the same period last year.

The company reported records for earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) adjusted of $3.9 billion and EBIT-adjusted margin of 9.3 percent. These compare to EBIT-adjusted of $2.9 billion and EBIT-adjusted margin of 7.5 percent in the second quarter of 2015, which included the impact of $0.3 billion restructuring costs, it added.

Commenting on the results, chairman and CEO Mary Barra said: “This was an outstanding quarter for GM. Our results were generated by strong retail sales in the US, record sales in China and a continued emphasis on improving the performance of our operations worldwide. We’ll continue to focus on driving profitable growth and leveraging our technical expertise to lead in the future of personal mobility.”

The company’s net revenue of $42.4 billion was also a record, compared to $38.2 billion in the second quarter of 2015. Holding exchange rates constant, net revenue was $5.0 billion higher than the second quarter of 2015.

Global Vehicle Sales

GM sold 2.4 million vehicles globally in the second quarter of 2016 to customers, about equal to the second quarter of 2015. From January till June-end, the company sold 4.76 million vehicles globally.

In its home market US, GM sold 1.44 million vehicles in the first six months of the year, which included a retail sales increase of slightly over 1 percent. Retail market share in the US rose 0.4 percentage points through June, the largest gain for any full-line automaker.

In China, GM and its joint ventures delivered a record 1.81 million vehicles during the first half of the year, at an increase of 5.3 percent. In Europe, Opel/Vauxhall soldiered on with a 7-percent sales increase to 621,000 vehicles in the first half of the year.