Updated: January 16, 2013 2:55 PM | By The Associated Press, thecanadianpress.com

Government hires banks to hold GM stock sale

DETROIT - The U.S. government is hiring JPMorgan Securities and Citigroup Global Markets to handle the sale of its remaining stake in General Motors.

The Treasury Department still holds 300 million shares of GM common stock that it got as part of a $49.5 billion bailout of the Detroit automaker.

GM bought back 200 million shares last month for $5.5 billion. The company says it won't buy back any more.

The banks will get one cent for every share they sell for a fee of up to $3 million.

The government says it will sell all the GM shares by early in 2014. Even with the sale taxpayers are likely to lose billions on the bailout.

The government now owns about 19 per cent of GM.

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