DEARBORN, Mich. – Ford Motor Co. has announced the results of conversion offers that the automaker says will reduce the company’s automotive debt by more than $1.9 billion, further strengthening its balance sheet and lowering annualized interest costs by about $180 million.

Including the conversion offers, the recent $3.6 billion prepayment on VEBA Note B and net debt reductions over the first nine months of 2010, Ford has reduced its automotive debt by $12.8 billion this year, lowering its annualized interest costs by nearly $1 billion.

“These successful conversion offers represent another significant step toward our goal of reducing our automotive debt and improving our balance sheet,” said Lewis Booth, Ford executive vice president and CFO. “We had previously said that even without the conversion offers, we expected our automotive cash to be about equal to automotive debt by the end of this year, well ahead of our earlier expectations. With the conversion offers, we will be clearly net cash positive by year-end 2010.”

Ford launched conversion offers on Oct. 26, offering to pay a premium in cash to induce the note holders to convert their convertible notes into shares of Ford’s common stock.