General Motors Co. said Thursday it made $1.33 billion in the second quarter, a sign it’s getting healthier as it prepares to sell stock to the public, The Associated Press reported.

It was the second straight quarterly profit for GM, which made $865 million in the first quarter.

CEO Ed Whitacre said last week that the company is eager to sell its shares in an initial public offering so it can end its dependence on the government and pay off $43.3 billion in bailout funds that were converted into a majority stake in the company.

Whitacre said the company plans to file paperwork in the near future for the IPO. But it’s unclear if the recent record of profits — $2.2 billion for the first half of 2010 — is enough to convince investors. GM lost $88 billion in the five years before it filed for bankruptcy protection last June.

GM’s second-quarter revenue totaled $33.2 billion, up 5.3 percent from the first quarter on growing sales in every region except Europe. In the U.S., GM saw strong sales of new and redesigned models like the Chevrolet Equinox wagon and Buick LaCrosse sedan.

GM said it earned $2.55 per share for the quarter. GM didn’t report second-quarter results last year because it spent part of the quarter in bankruptcy protection, but on Thursday, GM said it lost $12.9 billion in the second quarter of 2009, or $21.12 per share.

So far, GM’s results are a reversal of fortune from 2009, when it lost $4.3 billion from July 10, the day it exited bankruptcy court, through Dec. 31. Before the first-quarter results, GM hadn’t reported a profit since the second quarter of 2007.

GM said it ended the quarter with $32.5 billion in cash, down from $36 billion in the first quarter.

GM has been working to streamline operations and slash costs. It has shed four brands, changed leadership and last week announced its U.S. dealership network would number 4,500, about 25 percent smaller than it was in early 2009.

But it still faces hurdles. GM’s U.S. sales rose 14 percent in the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2009, according to AutoData Corp. That was slightly less than the average industry increase of 17 percent. GM had the highest incentive spending of any major automaker at $3,691 per vehicle, almost $1,000 more than the industry average, according to Edmunds.com.

GM has also relied heavily on sales to rental-car, government and corporate fleets, which are less profitable than sales to individual customers. Retail sales — or sales to individuals — were up 11 percent industry wide through June, but up only 1 percent at GM.

GM is the last of the Detroit automakers to report second-quarter results. Ford Motor Co. made $2.6 billion, its fifth straight quarterly profit. Chrysler Group LLC, which got $15.5 billion in federal aid, narrowed its second-quarter loss to $172 million.

The U.S. government has owned a 61 percent stake in GM since the company left bankruptcy protection.

“We want the government out. Period,” Whitacre said during an auto conference in northern Michigan. “We don’t want to be known as Government Motors.”

GM has already paid $6.7 billion in government loans. Whitacre said GM wants to sell its stock all at once, rather than in batches, which would end the government’s ownership more quickly.

But the U.S. government and GM’s other stakeholders — a United Auto Workers health-care trust, which owns 17.5 percent of the company; the Canadian government, which owns 11.7 percent; and old bondholders, who own 9.8 percent — will ultimately decide how much of their equity to sell.

A GM IPO could be the largest such sale in U.S. history. It would have to bring in $70 billion to pay back all of GM’s stakeholders; some analysts expect the IPO will be worth at least than much. That would be more than Ford’s market value of roughly $44 billion, but less than the total value of Toyota’s shares of about $113 billion.

It would also dwarf a 2008 offering by Visa Inc. that netted nearly $18 billion.

GM is taking steps to boost its U.S. sales. In July the company said it would buy AmeriCredit Corp., an automotive financing company that serves the subprime market, for $3.5 billion. Though it was partners with Ally Financial Inc., formerly known as GMAC, GM previously lacked a so-called captive financing company, which can offer better rates to customers than outside financial sources.

GM also has several new vehicles in the pipeline. Its new Chevrolet Cruze, due out next month, is GM’s latest bid to make a desirable — and profitable — small car. Later this year, the company will begin selling the Chevrolet Volt, a $41,000 electric car with a small gas engine that extends its range.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Eager to get out from under government control, GM expects to sell its stock in one swoop when it offers shares to the public sometime later this year, its CEO said Thursday.

Some experts had expected General Motors Co. to sell only a partial stake at first, followed by several smaller sales, The Associated Press reported, but Ed Whitacre told reporters at an auto conference Thursday, “Our anticipation is we’d roll it out there all at once.”

Ever since the Obama administration gave the automaker a $50 billion dollar survival loan last year, many drivers have scorned the company and bought cars from rivals. Even though GM has cut costs, changed leadership, and reported its first quarterly profit since 2007, the resentment will linger as long as taxpayers have a 61 percent stake in the company.

“We want the government out. Period,” Whitacre said. “We don’t want to be known as Government Motors.”

Although Whitacre wouldn’t say when GM wants to sell the stock or when it would file paperwork with regulators to start the official process, he repeatedly said GM wants the sale as soon as possible. The paperwork, he said, would be submitted in the near future.

GM spokesmen later said the decision on how much equity to sell will be made by current stockholders, the U.S. and Canadian governments, a United Auto Workers health care trust and former bondholders.

Whitacre said the company could have a successful IPO sometime after GM reports second-quarter earnings next week. The earnings numbers, he said, would be impressive. GM’s business already looks healthier. It reported a net income of $865 million in the first quarter.

“You’d have to say our future is pretty bright,” Whitacre said.

A General Motors IPO could be the largest such sale in U.S. history, Whitacre said, and demand for the shares should be good whenever they are sold.

It could be worth more than $70 billion — enough to pay back its government aid —and far bigger than a 2008 offering by Visa Inc. that netted nearly $18 billion, experts said.

Still, there are risks in doing a one-shot IPO.

The shares would sell for less if placed on the market in one large batch, experts said. Normally, larger companies sell a portion of their shares first, then further establish their earnings and management history as they offer the rest, said Linda Killian, portfolio manager of the initial public offering fund at Renaissance Capital in Greenwich, Conn.

Also, the climate for IPOs is poor, said Scott Sweet, senior managing partner of IPO Boutique in Tampa, Fla., which advises investors on IPOs.

Sweet said he would advise GM to wait until next year when unemployment is expected to drop, housing picks up and the government could have a plan to deal with its massive debt.

“I know some of the best deals in the pipelines have been held up,” Sweet said. “They don’t want to take a fraction of what they could get in a better market.”

Sweet said GM may be pushing ahead for political reasons, so President Obama and Democratic congressional candidates can tout a successful IPO in their campaigns ahead of November elections.

Democrats could use a successful stock offering as proof that the billions in federal aid saved and created jobs, and the government was repaid. Obama appeared at two Detroit factories last week and in Chicago Thursday to tout the success of the unpopular auto industry bailout.

But Whitacre denied that GM is under pressure from the Obama administration to sell shares before the elections.

“We’re trying to not tie it to any elections or anything like that, truly,” Whitacre said. “We just want it to be right.”

Last week, United Auto Workers President Bob King said that GM will file the IPO paperwork in mid-August. The union later said King was basing his statement on media accounts.

Whitacre also said Thursday that the automaker is looking to start up an idled factory to meet higher demand for its products, but he gave no specifics. The company has placed on “standby” two closed factories in Spring Hill, Tenn., and Janesville, Wis.

GM, he said, will have a U.S. dealership network of around 4,500, about 25 percent smaller than it was in early 2009 before the company entered bankruptcy protection.

DETROIT — General Motors said Friday that it is boosting production capacity for its new Chevrolet Volt due to strong public interest in the electric car that goes on sale this year, reported The Associated Press.

GM will now have a production capacity of 45,000 vehicles in 2012, up from previous plans for 30,000 vehicles.

The automaker made the announcement as President Barack Obama toured the Volt production facility in Detroit. The federal government sank $50 billion into GM as part of the broader rescue of the auto industry, giving taxpayers a majority stake in the nation’s largest auto company.

The Volt, priced at $41,000, can go 340 miles on a single battery charge, according to GM. The vehicle is powered purely by the battery in the first 40 miles, and then uses a small tank of gasoline to create an additional charge for the remaining 300 miles.

Chevrolet dealers began taking orders this week for the 2011 model.

GM recently raised the number of launch markets for the Volt from three to seven.

WASHINGTON – Dealer advocates are questioning whether a federal audit that challenged dealership cuts by General Motors and Chrysler was delayed until after arbitration hearings were completed, Automotive News reported.

The report by the inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program was released Sunday, after the last of more than 100 dealer arbitration hearings was completed Wednesday, July 14. The federal audit began a year ago.

Two dealer advocates said they had had extensive contacts with audit staff, which suggested that the report was on the verge of being released at least six months ago. A third advocate said an auditor told him in May that a draft was being circulated within the administration.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s brief response to the draft was sent Friday, July 16.

“This seems like too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence,” said Tammy Darvish, a co-leader of the Committee to Restore Dealer Rights, a rejected-dealer group.

Dealer lawyers said the 33-page report would have provided ammunition for them to use in seeking reinstatement for rejected dealerships.

The inspector general’s office said today that the timing of its report was a coincidence and that no decision was made to withhold the report until after arbitrations were completed.

“It’s impossible for a deadline to have been breached on this because we didn’t set a deadline for it,” Kris Belisle, a spokeswoman for the inspector general, said in an e-mail. “We will sometimes predict a rough time frame, but always with the understanding that nothing is firm. We did not release this report earlier for the simple reason that it was not yet ready.”

Belisle declined to comment on dealer contacts with audit staff.

The Treasury Department neglected to consider the potential job losses and economic impact when it pushed General Motors and Chrysler LLC to step up plans to close dealerships as part of their government-funded restructurings, a federal watchdog said.

A report by the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program that handled the federal bailouts said the Obama administration’s auto industry task force wasn’t focusing on the savings for the automakers either when it pushed them to shut dealerships faster, reported The Detroit News.

“The fact that Treasury was acting in part as an investor in GM and Chrysler does not insulate Treasury from its responsibility to the broader economy,” said the audit by Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the $787 billion stimulus program known as TARP.

“Job losses at terminated dealerships were apparently not a substantial factor in the Auto Team’s consideration of the dealership termination issue,” it said.

The Auto Team is part of the Treasury Department, which objected strongly to the report and denied pushing GM and Chrysler to single out dealerships in March of 2009 when it asked them to revise their restructuring plans.

In a letter attached to the inspector’s report, a senior Treasury official said the restructurings required “deep and painful sacrifices” from all stakeholders.

“The Administration’s actions not only avoided a potential catastrophic collapse and brought needed stability to the entire auto industry, but they also saved hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and gave GM and Chrysler a chance to re-emerge as viable, competitive American businesses,” said Herbert Allison, assistant secretary for financial stability at the Treasury Department.

Administration officials said it was easy in hindsight to question whether things could have been done differently. The report “takes the situation dramatically out of context,” one administration official said.

Two of Detroit’s three automakers were on the verge of extinction, the official said. “Over a million jobs were saved by virtue of saving GM and Chrysler.”

While the report focused on job losses at dealerships, more were lost in other parts of the industry, another administration official said. Since June 2007, the number of jobs in auto manufacturing has fallen 30 percent, compared with an 18 percent drop in auto retailing jobs.

In March of 2009, after the Auto Team rejected the restructuring plans submitted by GM and Chrysler along with requests for aid, the companies revised their plans. Chrysler said it would terminate 789 dealerships by June 10, 2009, and GM announced plans to close 1,454 dealerships by October 2010.

The terminations remain an issue, with some dealers still appealing the decisions while automakers find they need some of the stores.

The report also stoked political differences over the government’s role. “This sobering report should serve as a wake-up call as to the implications of politically orchestrated bailouts and how putting decisions about private enterprise in the hands of political appointees and bureaucrats can lead to costly and unintended consequences,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

GM said that it was showing “substantial progress” a year later. “The events depicted in the report have since been overtaken by a new GM and a stronger dealer network to match,” it said.

General Motors Co plans to file its initial public offering in mid-August, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

General Motors is also in talks with banks for a revolving credit line worth $5 billion, sources said. Bank of America Corp , Citigroup Inc , JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley have already agreed to provide $500 million of credit each, with other banks still to be chosen, a source said.

The credit line is expected to be finalized in the next two weeks, about a month before the automaker files for its IPO, a source said. Earlier media reports said the IPO filing was expected in early July.

GM spokeswoman Noreen Pratscher declined to comment.

GM is more likely to cut the valuation on the IPO than delay it, said one source, who requested anonymity because the talks are confidential.

The U.S. Treasury, which owns nearly 61 percent of the automaker’s common shares after a $50 billion bailout, plans to sell $10 billion to $12 billion in shares, sources said.

But a Treasury official said: “It is way too early to know. The pricing and ultimate size of Treasury’s stake are decisions for later in the year.”

GM, which declared bankruptcy last year, has emerged from Chapter 11 protection, and an IPO is a key step for the automaker to wean itself away from government support.

GM is not expected to sell shares immediately, but plans to sell about $3 billion in mandatory convertible notes that convert into shares in the future, a source said. Proceeds from the IPO are expected to be used to repay debt and fund GM’s pension liability, the source said.