New GM Finance Chief Is Optimistic

Company May Turn a Profit This Year, but Public Stock Offering Not a Top Goal

General Motors Co. has a reasonable chance of becoming profitable in 2010 and a "remarkably strong" balance sheet eight months after emerging from bankruptcy, GM Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said Wednesday in his first public comments since taking the job.

Mr. Liddell wouldn't specify whether he meant GM could make money on a net basis or operationally. GM Chairman and Chief Executive Edward E. Whitacre Jr. had predicted in January the company would report a profit in 2010 that he hoped would be on a net basis.

Mr. Liddell, who previously held the top finance job at Microsoft Corp., ...

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