GM’s crossovers keep profit rolling amid plant revamp

Bloomberg

General Motors Co.’s hot-selling new crossovers are padding profit for the largest US automaker amid a costly retooling of truck factories and restructuring of Korean operations.
Adjusted earnings fell to $1.43 a share in the first quarter, beating analysts’ average estimate for $1.24. The Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain drove better-than-expected revenue and buoyed GM through downtime at pickup plants that shut down early this year for retooling to build redesigned versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.
Wall Street was expecting the revenue and profit drop, and Chief Finance Officer Chuck Stevens called the results a “very solid performance.” He said GM is on pace to nearly match last year’s record profit on the strength of new SUVs, growth in China, improvements in South Korea and gains by its auto-lending business.
The company is “very much on plan based on our expectations for the year and given some of the challenges related to the truck downtime,” Stevens told reporters in Detroit.