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Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co., signaling confidence in its recovery from bankruptcy, said it generated $3.3 billion in cash in the third quarter and plans to start repaying government loans early.

The biggest U.S. automaker said today it lost $1.15 billion after its July 10 exit from a restructuring engineered by the Obama administration. Cash on hand totaled $42.6 billion at the end of the quarter, and GM reported progress in cutting jobs and shutting dealers.

The results offered Detroit-based GM’s first glimpse of its financial performance since emerging from Chapter 11 and shedding the remnants of the old General Motors Corp. on July 10 under the stewardship of Chairman Ed Whitacre, 68, and Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson, 50.

“The numbers are encouraging,” Maryann Keller, president of consultant Maryann Keller & Associates in Stamford, Connecticut, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “What it demonstrates is that the government gave GM a reorganized balance sheet that made them more competitive.”

GM reported unaudited data for July 1 through July 9, for the pre-bankruptcy company, and for the period since July 10. Revenue was $28 billion for the full three months.

“We are ahead of the bankruptcy plan, not only in operations, but with some contingencies we provided for that we have been able to manage,” Henderson said in a Bloomberg Television interview.