Ford Pares Debt, Posts Record $1.69B Quarterly Profit

Ford Motor Co., the world’s most profitable automaker, is generating enough cash to pay off billions in debt after reporting third-quarter net income of $1.69 billion, the most in its 107-year history, reported Bloomberg.

By the end of the week, Ford will have paid down $10.8 billion in obligations this year and reduced its auto unit’s debt to $22.8 billion, the company said. New models like the Fiesta subcompact car are fetching high prices, helping to boost the automotive cash to $23.8 billion on September 30. By year’s end, Ford said its cash will about equal its liabilities.

“We continued to invest heavily in new products in the 2008 and 2009 time frame when we had, frankly, great need of our scarce cash,” Lewis Booth, Ford’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. “And we’re paying back debt faster than we’d hoped.”

Ford’s results topped the previous third-quarter high of $1.13 billion, set in 1997. Excluding some items, profit was 48 cents a share, beating the 38-cent average of 12 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The second-largest U.S. automaker had net income of $997 million in last year’s third quarter and adjusted per-share profit of 26 cents.

CEO Alan Mulally has revived Ford by improving quality and expanding offerings of the namesake brand. Ford, the only major U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy, won 15.1 percent of U.S. light-vehicle sales in the quarter, up from 13 percent two years ago, as buyers pay more for new models such as the Taurus sedan and Super Duty pickups.

“Ford has elevated its brand,” said Jessica Caldwell, director of pricing and industry analysis for automotive researcher Edmunds.com. “They’re attracting a more discerning buyer who has more income and can afford more options.”

Buyers of Ford cars and trucks paid an average of $30,636 per model in September, up 10 percent from five years ago, as they loaded up on options like voice-activated telephone and stereo systems, according to Santa Monica, Calif.-based Edmunds. That’s the highest average price Edmunds has recorded for Ford since the researcher began gathering such data in 2002, Caldwell said.

Higher average prices helped to add $400 million to Ford’s pretax automotive profits in the quarter, the company said. The Fiesta, which went on sale in June, commands $3,000 to $4,000 above its $13,995 base price as buyers choose options like leather seats, according to George Pipas, Ford sales analyst.