General Motors announced today that it has lost $1.2 billion since emerging from bankruptcy protection through September 30, 2009.

The company says the number is far better than expected and that it is making progress towards change.

GM chief executive Fritz Henderson said today in a statement, “today’s results provide evidence of the solid foundation we are building for the new GM,”

Total revenue in Q3 2009 was $26.4 billion, up from $22.4 billion in the same period last year.

The company was also cash flow positive in Q3, retaining $3 billion dollars in cash after expenditures. GM says it does not expect it to be cash flow positive in Q4 because it must repay outstanding debts (including to government loans and $2.8 billion charge to Delphi).

Post bankruptcy, GM now aggregately holds $17 billion in debt, down from $94.7 billion before the company entered bankruptcy protection.

Global market share was also up to 11.9-percent in Q3, aided by increases sales especially in China were total sales were up to 478,000 cars, or up 6-percent from Q2 2009.

GM said it would begin to repay government loans on the good results. GM says it will be repaying the $700 million (on the $1.3 billion principal) it owes to the German government, the $1.4 billion to the Canadian governments by the end of December, and it said it would also pay off U.S. government loans totaling $6.7 billion in 2010.

GM also said the company is prepping for an IPO sometime in 2010, contingent on the company being profitable.

GM is expected to release fiscal 2009 earnings by the end of March 2010.