American Axle ends string of losses with 3Q profit

American Axle posts 3rd-quarter profit, marking first profitable quarter in 2 years

• On 4:52 pm EDT, Friday October 30, 2009

DETROIT (AP) -- American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. posted its first quarterly profit in two years on Friday, an encouraging sign after deep and painful cost cuts at the struggling auto parts supplier. Its shares jumped more than 9 percent.

"We believe the third quarter of 2009 marks a positive turning point" for the company, CEO Richard E. Dauch said in a statement.

The profit was largely based on a one-time gain from pension and post-retirement benefit curtailments, which totaled $42.3 million during the quarter. The company continued to take charges due to salaried attrition programs and other restructuring costs.

The parts maker has been struggling under production cuts and plant shutdowns at its main customers, General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC.

The company has made a number of cuts to its own business and secured eleventh-hour agreements from its lenders to restructure its debt over the last several months, saving it from what many feared would be a bankruptcy filing.

Shares of American Axle rose 60 cents, or 9.1 percent, to close at $5.99 Friday. The stock has recovered from a low of 26 cents in March.

American Axle said it earned $19.6 million, or 35 cents per share, in the three months ended Sept. 30. That's compared with a loss of $440.9 million, or $8.54 per share, in the same quarter last year.

Excluding one-time items, the company would have lost 18 cents per share.

Revenue fell 22 percent to $409.6 million.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters called for a loss of 38 cents per share on $420.3 million in revenue, on average. Such estimates typically exclude one-time items.

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