Ford predicts 50% global sales increase by 2015, return dividends

Ford’s Alan Mulally has looked into his crystal ball and he sees a bright future for Ford. Really bright.

According to the mid-decade report released earlier today at Ford, the folks at the Blue Oval are predicting global sales to increase by “approximately 50 percent” by 2015, which translates to 8 million annual global sales.

To give a little perspective, in 2010 Ford moved 5.3 million vehicles worldwide – meaning it expects not only to continue growth as an individual company, but it is also anticipating industry-wide growth as the world’s economies continue to stabilize. Ford is not just looking to bump volume, as the automaker says it also expects to raise its global automotive profit margins from 6.1 percent (2010) to 8-9 percent by 2015. North American automotive profit margins are projected to reach an even higher 8-10 percent by mid-decade.

In the past Ford has been plagued by dramatic peaks and valleys in product portfolios, caused largely by allowing successful products to linger in the market far too long. To combat that, Ford announced that it intends to spend roughly $6 billion annually on capital spending by 2015, compared to just $3.9 billion in 2010.

Down with the debt
Ford also reiterated its commitment to quickly and safely paying down its debt, scheduling another $2.3 billion in pay down for the second quarter of this year, with $800 million from its revolving credit line already paid down.

Ford’s debt peaked in 2009 at $33.6 billion, which was down to $16.6 billion by March 31, 2011, with Ford projecting a reduction to $10 billion by 2015.

What about the stockholders?
Ford knows that stockholders are getting anxious about returning to paid dividends, so stockholders should breathe a sigh of relief as Ford committed to returning dividends once the company returns to investment grade in the near future.

“We will continue to focus on maintaining healthy, growing operating margins and creating long-term value,” said Lewis Booth, Ford executive vice president and chief financial officer.

View the original article here