Jim Hackett of Ford Motor speaks at an event during the 2018 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., on Jan. 14, 2018.
Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Ford Motor shares dropped by about 3% after the automaker warned of a 15.7% drop in first-quarter revenue as the coronavirus depresses sales and production.
The automaker said Monday that it couldn’t yet provide an accurate estimate of its earnings, telling investors it expects a pretax loss of about $600 million, excluding $300 million in special-items.
Ford said total revenue for the first-quarter is expected to be about $34 billion, down from $40.3 billion a year ago.
As of Thursday, Ford sad it had about $30 billion in cash on its balance sheet, including $15.4 billion of proceeds from borrowings last month against two existing credit lines.
Ford’s first-quarter vehicle wholesales were down 21% compared with a year ago, “largely as a result of lower production and demand related to the coronavirus,” according to the company. Currently, only Ford’s operations in China, where coronavirus risks developed earlier and are now moderating, are producing and wholesaling vehicles.
“We continue to opportunistically assess all funding options to further strengthen our balance sheet and increase liquidity to optimize our financial flexibility,” Ford CFO Tim Stone said in a release. “We also are identifying additional operating actions to enhance our cash position.”
Ford is scheduled to report first-quarter results on April 28.
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