GM Revises ’05 Loss Upward

General Motors Corp. on Thursday revised its loss for 2005 to $10.6 billion, $2 billion more than initially reported, because of charges associated with its restructuring, the bankruptcy of former subsidiary Delphi Corp. and its finance arm, GMAC.

The company said in a statement that on a per-share basis its 2005 loss was $18.69 when fully accounting for those charges, up from a previously reported per-share loss of $15.13.

GM also said that it would delay filing its annual report with securities regulators because it had mistakenly accounted for cash flows from a mortgage subsidiary of GMAC called Residential Capital Corp.

The company said that the accounting problem would not change its reported net income or the presentation of its balance sheet, but could change its statement of cash flows at Residential Capital, GMAC and the parent company.

GM said that once it resolved the Residential Capital accounting issue it would file its annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It said that would happen within the next two weeks.

GM said it was taking a $1.7-billion charge as it shut factories and laid off workers, up from an initial estimate of $1.3 billion for that restructuring.

The increased restructuring charge added $300 million in costs that GM said it expected to incur once its current contract with the United Auto Workers union expires in September 2007.

The Detroit-based company has been slashing costs and cutting capacity as it adjusts to the loss of market share to Asian rivals in its core U.S. market.

GM also said it was raising the estimate of its exposure to auto parts supplier Delphi Corp. to at least $5.5 billion before taxes from an earlier estimate of $3.6 billion.

GM shares rose 72 cents to $22.22, but fell in after-hours trading to $21.80.