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Treasury Keeps Ford From Running On Empty

While its Big Three competitors struggled, Ford's treasury filled up on cash when the markets were easy, which allowed the auto maker to reduce its debt without destroying shareholder value and steer clear of government loans.

By Richard Gamble | Updated on June 01, 2009

As two of the Big Three U.S. auto makers slip closer to oblivion after months on government life-support, Ford Motor Co. is conspicuously chugging along on its own. A treasury that bet heavily on liquidity and was willing to pay dearly for it played no small part of Ford’s relative success. By stockpiling cash, the treasury bought Ford both staying power and room to maneuver in the current crisis. This spring Ford tapped its cash hoard and the equity value that the strong cash position was supporting to wipe $10 billion in debt off its balance sheet.

“Basically, we spent $3.5 billion in cash and stock to buy back $10 billion in debt,” explains David Brandi, Ford’s assistant treasurer. “Obviously, our debt load was pretty heavy and we needed to strengthen our balance sheet, which we had been doing incrementally with transactions in 2007 and 2008. As the credit markets got increasingly stressed and the price of our securities fell, it was a real opportunity for us to use a mix of cash and equity to take out a sizable chunk of our debt.” The debt erased included unsecured convertible debt ($4.3 billion), public unsecured bonds ($3.6 billion) and a secured term loan ($2.2 billion), he adds.

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