DETROIT, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Ford Motor Co. may seek billions from investors because of continuing losses, cut production and lay off assembly line workers at plants making the redesigned Explorer sport-utility vehicle and Taurus sedan.
Don Winkler, the senior executive at Ford Credit who was recruited by former CEO Jacques Nasser, resigned Friday as head of the financial arm of the company hard-hit by loan defaults and the expense of low-interest financing wars with competitors. Ford Credit chief financial officer Greg Smith will replace Winkler.
Ford Credit has more than $202 billion in assets but company officials told Wall Street analysts earlier this month the No. 2 automaker would lose $900 million, about 50 cents a share, in the fourth quarter because of the need to increase credit reserves to cover bad loans as the economic slump continues.
Ford also is spending hundreds of millions in one-time costs to buyout 5,000 salaried employees. Ford's long-waited restructuring plan is expected in mid-January.
James Padilla, group vice president for North American operations, told the Detroit Free Press last week Ford has too many plants making too many cars and he does not rule out laying off more than 8,000 hourly workers and closing several plants.
Ford has about 119,000 hourly workers in North America.
The Wall Street Journal Monday said Ford was considering cutting production of the Explorer, the world's best-selling SUV, at an assembly plant in Louisville, Ky., and eliminating one of two production lines at an Atlanta plant that makes the mid-sized Taurus sedan.
Ford last week announced plans to eliminate one of two shifts at the Edison, N.J. plant that assembles Ranger pickups, terminating more than 600 workers and 30 white-collar employees.
The Journal said Ford had sought approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise as much as $10 billion in fresh capital by selling common and preferred stock, depository shares and other securities.
The Detroit News Sunday reported that Fred Mateer, vice president of human resources, and Barrett Burns, executive vice president of global risk management also will leave the company.
Winkler, 53, joined Ford in 1999 and reported directly to Nasser, who was succeeded by company Chairman William Clay Ford Jr., the great-grandson of founder Henry Ford, on Oct. 30.
