Revised Results Hit GM Stock

Shares of General Motors Corp., the world’s largest automaker, fell to their lowest in 13 years Thursday after the company said that it would restate 2001 earnings and that it lost more money in the second quarter than it first reported.

The shares fell $1.12, or 5%, to $23.51. The stock is down 41% this year.

Profit in 2001 was overstated by as much as $400 million, GM said in a U.S. regulatory filing Wednesday. The second-quarter revision arose from GM overestimating the value of its 20.1% stake in Japan’s Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., maker of Subaru vehicles, by 57%, according to a separate filing Wednesday.

GM has had four straight quarterly losses, the company’s longest stretch without a profit in 13 years. The automaker said last month that it received subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission about its reporting of pensions and other retiree benefits and its accounting transactions with suppliers.

The stock decline means more losses for Kirk Kerkorian, the billionaire investor who spent $1.7 billion amassing a 9.9% stake in GM this year. His shares are now worth $390 million less than what he paid for them.

GM previously reported 2001 net income of $601 million. The restatement for the period will occur when the company files its annual report for 2005, GM said.

The 2001 credits were for savings that GM would receive from suppliers, a spokeswoman said. They were booked for 2001 when they should have been booked in subsequent years, she said.

GM in October said it was revising second-quarter results to reflect a change in the value of its Fuji stake. The company adjusted the stake’s value down to $650 million from an estimated $1.5 billion previously.

That increased GM’s loss to $1.07 billion in the quarter, almost four times the loss of $286 million reported initially.