S&P to GM: Fix Opel to Regain Investment-Grade Rating

CEO Dan Akerson tells Bloomberg News that he hopes General Motors Co. will regain its investment-grade credit rating within the next 12 months.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Service says GM needs to successfully restructure its money-losing European unit to earn an investment-grade rating.

GM's debt fell into junk-bond territory in 2005 as part of its long slide into bankruptcy in 2009. S&P and Moody's Investors Service each now rate GM at one rung below investment grade. Fitch Ratings places the company two steps below investment grade.

GM posted record net earnings of $9.2 billion in 2011 and $1 billion in the first three months of this year, marking the company's ninth straight profitable quarter. Akerson has focused on maintaining a "fortress balance sheet," which on March 31 boasted only $3.8 billion in automotive debt and $31.5 billion in cash.

Rival Ford Motor Co., whose debt also fell to junk-bond levels in 2005, earned back an investment-grade rating last month from Fitch.