posted under sexy-news by Nicholas-Admin

I must say, after all these bailouts, Im glad to see one company wants to try to rough it out. Instead of taking a government handout, Ford Motor company insists they have enough cash to survive.

Chief Alan Mulally says the car maker has sufficient liquidity, but he’s not taking any chances.

Ford Motor may be the only U.S. car maker not operating with federal bailout money, but it’s not taking any chances.

After burning another $5.5 billion in the fourth quarter and drawing down its once-plentiful cash cushion to $13.6 billion, Ford (nyse: F – news – people ) said it would immediately withdraw its remaining $10.1 billion in secured bank credit lines to cope with uncertainty.

Chief Executive Alan Mulally said Ford has sufficient liquidity to funds its operations and invest in new products and will not need a government bridge loan. Drawing down the extra credit line, he said, is merely a precautionary move, given the volatility in the credit markets.

“Our plan is to not use that money to fund our ongoing operations,” Mulally told analysts and reporters. “We think we also have enough liquidity to meet our minimum cash needs.” (Some analysts have said Ford needs a minimum of $10 billion to fund its operations.) “At this time, we just thought it was prudent, with the volatility in the credit markets, to move that asset over to us,” Mulally said. The move will put Ford’s total liquidity at $24 billion. It has $25.8 billion in debt.

Ford has been consistently more optimistic about the industry’s sales outlook than either General Motors (nyse: GM – news – people ) or Chrysler, which have received a total of $17.6 billion in government loans to avert bankruptcy. If the industry sells 12.5 million vehicles in 2009, Ford told Congress in December that it won’t need any taxpayer help, but it would like a $6 billion standby line of credit in case conditions worsened.

But on Thursday, as it reported a net loss of $11.8 billion for the year and a 36% drop in fourth-quarter revenue, Ford acknowledged that a 12.5 million vehicle sales rate is on the high side.

The company now says it expects U.S. industry sales in the range of 11.5 million to 12.5 million vehicles in 2009. In its testimony before Congress, Ford said sales of 11 million vehicles in 2009, 12.5 million in 2010 and 14 million in 2011 would increase its potential funding needs to $9 billion. (By contrast, GM recently lowered its planning assumptions to 10 million vehicles for 2009.)

Mulally continues to believe that things will improve in the second half of the year, due to government stimulus actions, and that Ford will not need federal help, barring a “significant” event such as a further deterioration in the economy or the collapse of one or more competitors or suppliers.

“It’s a very volatile time for all of us,” he said, adding, “It’s not our plan at all to access any money.”

The preceeding article can be read at Forbes.com