GM profit falls to $1.7B after sale of European division

July 25 (UPI) -- General Motors reported a dramatic second-quarter decline of 42 percent on Tuesday -- a drop largely caused by its exit from foreign markets, the company said.

In its earnings analysis, GM reported a $1.7 billion profit. Last year, the automaker recorded a profit of nearly $3 billion.

Strong sales in North America and China, as well as continued growth of GM Financial, were credited for the profit.

A large part of the decline from 2016 was due to a $700 million loss from the sales of its European division and a $600 million loss from leaving markets in India and South Africa. Without taking the sale of the European division into account, the company sold its Opel and Vauxhall operations to France's PSA Groupe for $2.2 billion.

GM earned a profit of $2.4 billion for the quarter, outperforming analysts' expectations. The profit can be calculated as $1.89 per share.

In North America, GM reported a pre-tax profit of $3.5 billion, down from $3.7 billion in the same quarter last year. That decline was attributed to slower sales and higher production costs.

"As expected, it was another strong quarter," GM Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens said. "The performance was really led by North America."