This summary is based on the first quarter fiscal 2008 earnings call conducted by General Motors Corp. (GM: chart) on April 30, 2008.

Management:

- Vice Chairman, COO: Fritz Henderson
- CFO: Ray Young
- Executive Director IR: Randy Arickx

Key Investors Issues

- Revenue fell by 1.64% to $42.7 billion.
- Dealer inventory finished at 875,000 units, down 200,000 units.
- Net loss was $3.3 billion or $5.74 a share compared with a net loss from continuing operations of $42 million, or 7 cents per share in the prior year.

First Quarter Highlights

Revenue fell by 1.64% to $42.7 billion to due to the impact of the American Axle strike on NA operations and weakness in the U.S. auto industry.

- The firm had record GM sales in three of the four regions driven largely by emerging market growth.
- North America was unfavorably impacted by the American Axle strike and also lower volume even beyond that though there were some favorable factors in North America, particular commodity hedging in foreign exchange.
- The North America operation showed continued good cost performance of $500 million year-over-year in structural costs related principally to manufacturing and people cost and material cost was lower.

GM’s global share 12.5%, down five tenth of a percent was driven by what was happening in North America.

- Worldwide production was down about 107,000 units, more or less explained by the impact of the Axle strike.
- Dealer inventory finished at 875,000 units, down 200,000 units reflecting the strategy of trying to actively manage inventory down in a more challenging industry environment.
- The firm brought down dealer stocks by over 25% from almost 1.2 million units down to about 875,000 units, almost a 300,000 unit adjustment in the US dealer inventory.
- The BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China, as well as the other emerging markets, have tremendous growth without the challenges in the US industry.

Net loss was $3.3 billion or $5.74 a share compared with a net loss from continuing operations of $42 million, or 7 cents per diluted share in the prior year due to declining sales.

- GM reported an adjusted loss before taxes of $276 million for the quarter attributable to GMAC, as a result of its 49% equity interest and preferred dividends.
- North America adjusted results shows EBT negative $611 million, down 342 versus prior year. Revenue was down about $3.5 billion, production volume down 178,000.
- Cash, marketable securities, and readily-available assets of the Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association (VEBA) trust were down 3.3% to $23.9 billion.
- The impact of the American Axle strike was about negative $2.1 billion for the quarter, $1.3 of which was related to management of working capital and accrued expenses.
-The change in liquidity reflects adjusted negative operating cash flow of $3.6 billion, including undrawn, committed U.S. credit facilities of $7 billion, GM has access to more than $30 billion in liquidity.

The American Axle strike:

- The majority of the impact is full sized pickups and full sized utilities, but also some impact in full-sized vans and mid-sized trucks.
- In terms of the contribution margin impact of the loss in production, it is about $800 million EDT impact .
- To date, the strike has had a minimal impact however on the ability to meet customer demand.
- The firm continues to manage its production schedules across the plants to try to maintain production to the extent possible, particularly for passenger cars.

Segmental Analysis:

GM Automotive Operations: earnings before tax were $392 million on an adjusted basis (reported earnings before tax of $68 million), compared to $231 million in the year-ago period (reported earnings before tax of $186 million).
- GM sold 2.25 million vehicles, down less than 1% from 2.27 million units in the first quarter 2007, with 64% of sales outside of the United States.
- Unit sales outside GMNA were up 8% compared with the same quarter last year as robust sales in the first quarter in GM’s GMLAAM and GMAP regions, and improved sales in the GME region helped offset a 10 percent unit decline in GMNA.

GMNA revenue fell 14.69% to $24.5 billion, impacted by the lost production due to the American Axle strike a softer U.S. market and planned actions to maintain lean inventories.

- The decline in earnings was accounted for by the loss of 100,000 production units resulting from the American Axle strike, which had an estimated impact to earnings of $0.8 billion.
- Lower volumes resulting from a softer U.S. market and lower market share, as well as shifts in product mix also put strain on earnings.
- There were favorable material and structural cost performance and commodity hedging gains and foreign exchange.

GME revenue was up 17% and adjusted earnings before tax improved by $137 million, driven by improved material cost performance, commodity hedging gains and reduced warranty costs.
- This was partially offset by negative foreign exchange and unfavorable country mix.
- GME had record sales volumes of 572,000 units hence market share improved marginally from 17.9% to 16.7%.
GMLAAM adjusted EBT, more than doubled
-Driven by continued strong market growth and gains in GM market share in the region.
-Revenue was up over 33% and volumes were up 20%, setting new first-quarter records for both unit sales and revenue. Argentina, Egypt and North Africa each set new quarterly sales records.

- GMAP adjusted EBT increased by 49%, driven by strong volume and improvements in material cost performance, partially offset by mix and pricing deterioration and increased structural costs incurred to support growth.
-Revenue and earnings before tax improved significantly due to the overall volume gains, although market share was down slightly primarily due to declines in China, Australia and Korea.
- GMAC Financial Services reported a net loss of $589 million due to significant declines in the international mortgage operation of Residential Capital, LLC (ResCap).
- The company’s global automotive and insurance businesses posted profits.
- GM reported an adjusted loss before taxes of $276 million for the quarter attributable to GMAC, as a result of its 49% equity interest and preferred dividends.
- While continued volatility in the capital and credit markets put pressure on results, GMAC continues to take actions to reduce risk, streamline its cost structure and preserve liquidity in an effort to protect franchise value.