On the day GM emerged from bankruptcy, company CFO Ray Young told CNBC Friday that the new GM won't be seeing real cash flow until sometime in 2010.
"It will be tough to get to positive cash flow this year," Young said. "Our goal is to get into positive cash flow next year and we're doing everything we can to accomplish that. We have a viability plan that will put us there in 2010."
Young also said that the new GM will match with other automakers when it comes to costs. "Our labor costs will ultimately be in line with the transplants [foreign automakers]," Young said. "The new VEBA settlement [healthcare, pension costs] with the union goes a long way to reducing labor costs."
Other comments from Young:
On an IPO: "We'll do one as soon as we can. But I don't expect it to happen until the 2nd quarter of 2009. And we'll have to see how the market is doing then."
Product Launches: "Every car we make must be a winner. All new recent launches have been successful in terms of pricing."
Paying back government loans: "We'll pay back the money as soon as possible. The loans are six years in duration but I think we'll be paying them off before then."
On current VP Bob Lutz becoming head of marketing and communications: "We're going to be spending a lot of time on building up the revenue side of the business. That's why Bob has been appointed to his position."