GM concerned about sale losses in bankruptcy: CFO

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp is very concerned about potential lost sales if the automaker files for bankruptcy and wants a very quick process if it goes that route, Chief Financial Officer Ray Young said on Thursday

Young told reporters that GM, which has until June 1 to reach agreements with various stakeholders, has already seen anecdotal evidence of sales pressure due to the threat of a bankruptcy filing by the largest U.S.-based automaker.

The automaker posted a $6 billion first-quarter net loss and saw its global vehicle sales drop 28 percent in part because of consumer concerns about its finances, he said.

"The other factor, frankly speaking, is the increased concern about bankruptcy by consumers, particularly in North America, is having an impact on our sales," Young said.

GM has said it would file for bankruptcy if it fails to get enough participation in a bond exchange offer that remains open to late May, joining rival Chrysler in a restructuring. GM is watching the Chrysler reorganization closely, he added.

"If we had to go through the process we have the advantage of what has been happening within the courts," he said.

The automaker still wants to avoid bankruptcy "at all costs" in part due to the expected severe loss of revenue that cannot be offset by cutting costs, Young said.

"The anecdotal evidence is that people are concerned about bankruptcy and that is why we want to avoid it if at all possible, but if we had to go through a process like that it has to be quick, it has to be in and out in order to avoid significant decline in revenue," Young said.

GM cut costs and managed costs, but still was unable to keep up with the decline in sales in the first quarter and burned through some $10 billion in the quarter, he said.

"We are not proud of the $10 billion figure, but we were able to push out a lot of cash expenditure in the first quarter," Young said.

Both GM and the U.S. Treasury were focused on a restructuring deal that would provide a return to taxpayers on the up to $27 billion of loans that GM has said it could need. GM has proposed that the Treasury convert half of the loans to the automaker into stock in a restructured company that would give the government a majority stake.

"We, GM management, take very seriously the role of taking taxpayer dollars."

(Reporting by David Bailey and Kevin Krolicki, editing by Dave Zimmerman)