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Treasury may be only seller in GM IPO: sources


    NEW YORK/DETROIT (Reuters) - The United Auto Workers health care trust and the governments of Canada and Ontario may not participate in General Motors Co's upcoming IPO to avoid taking a cut on the price of their shares, three people with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.

    The Treasury still plans to sell at least 20 percent of its stake to become a minority shareholder in the top U.S. automaker, five people familiar with the matter said.

    The UAW's trust fund for retiree health care -- known as the VEBA -- and Canada together hold just under 30 percent of GM common stock as a result of the automaker's restructuring in a U.S. government-directed bankruptcy in 2009.

    VEBA managers and Canadian officials have raised the possibility of waiting until follow-on stock offerings to avoid offering the hefty discounts typically required for initial offerings, the sources said.

    All the people with knowledge of the discussions asked not to be named because preparations for the deal remain private and tightly controlled by U.S. securities laws.

    (Reporting by Soyoung Kim and Clare Baldwin in New York, Kevin Krolicki in Detroit and Philipp Halstrick in Frankfurt. Additional reporting by John McCrank in Toronto. Editing by Robert MacMillan)