GM to return 'significant' amount of capital to shareholders, reinstates FY guidance

Automotive giant General Motors revealed on Wednesday that it will return a "significant" amount of capital to shareholders and hike its quarterly dividend as it looks to put recent strikes behind it.

General Motors launched a $10.0bn share buyback and told investors that it would increase its quarterly dividend by 33% to $0.12, helping send its stock more than 8% higher in pre-market trading.

GM reinstated its full-year earnings guidance after having withdrawn it as a result of a labour dispute between it and the United Auto Workers union in late October that ultimately led to thousands of American autoworkers walking off the job for roughly six weeks.

The Michigan-based firm forecast for adjusted earnings of between $7.20 and $7.70 a share, versus its previous outlook of $7.15 to $8.15 per share and analysts' estimates of $7.45.

Chief executive Mary Barr said: "We are finalising a 2024 budget that will fully offset the incremental costs of our new labour agreements."

GM also said it will cut spending on its Cruise unit, the group's self-driving wing, after a crash injured a pedestrian.

"We must rebuild trust with regulators," Barra added. “This includes making improvements driven by the independent safety and incident reviews that are ongoing [...] We expect the pace of Cruise's expansion to be more deliberate when operations resume, resulting in substantially lower spending in 2024 than in 2023."

As of 1430 GMT, GM shares were up 10.66% in pre-market trading at $31.97 each.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com