GM profit likely this year, analyst says

General Motors generated $1 billion in cash since exiting bankruptcy last summer but one analyst says the automaker still needs to make further strides to reach profitability to become a public company again. 

The troubled automaker, which took nearly $20 billion in loans from the U.S. government, could make a profit in the second and third quarters this year putting it on a path back toward public ownership, Mike Boudreau, a director at O'Keefe & Associates, a Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based firm that gauges corporate restructuring told The Hill today. The U.S. government owns 61 percent of the company.

Earlier today, GM executives said they expect the company to make a profit in 2010 and would have a public offering, although they didn't provide a timeline. 

Cash from a public offering could help GM pay back loans from the U.S. and Canadian governments, Boudreau said. GM said it repaid $2.4 billion to the U.S. Treasury. 

The small uptick in the economy, combined with a new leadership team and internal pressure within GM to make a profit could provide the automaker the jolt it needs, Boudreau said. U.S. sales rose 16.8 percent for GM in the first quarter of 2010. 

Boudreau gave GM a 3, on a scale of 1 to 10, on its progress so far, saying he has seen the needed changes in upper-management but it waiting for the change to filter down into the "middle market." 

The company reported $57.5 billion in revenue for 2009 with a loss of $4.3 billion for the last half of the year.