GM confirms expanding IPO by 31 percent

DETROIT — Just a day before its historic return to the New York Stock Exchange, General Motors confirmed Wednesday that it would expand its initial public offering of common shares by 31 percent. The company, responding to superheated investor demand for its stock, said it will raise the size of its IPO to 478 million common shares from the previously announced 365 million. Most of the common stock will be sold by the U.S. government, which is trying to unload what is now a 61 percent stake in the country’s largest automaker.