G.M. Prices Its Shares at $33 in Return to Stock Market

General Motors announced on Wednesday afternoon that it had priced its common shares at $33 each, setting a record for the largest initial public offering in American history.

The offering is expected to reap $23.1 billion through the sale of common and preferred shares, including overallotment options that will be exercised to take advantage of surging investor demand for the car maker’s shares.

G.M. will return to the stock markets on Thursday, a year and a half after it filed for a quick government-sponsored bankruptcy to shed billions of dollars in debt and reshape its business.

The stock sale will also halve the Treasury Department’s stake to about 26 percent, speeding up the Obama administration’s effort to remove itself from G.M. That has also been a important goal for the company, which has long wanted to regain private ownership and shed the “Government Motors” label.

G.M. will sell 549.7 million common shares at $33 apiece, raising $18.1 billion by taking advantage of an overallotment option to cash in on bigger-than-expected demand. It will also sell 92 million preferred shares at $50 each, raising $4.6 billion.

The $33 is at the top of the company’s expected price range — itself raised from a range of $26 to $29 earlier this week.

By raising $23.1 billion through the sale of common and preferred stock, G.M. will have surpassed the $22.1 billion raised by the Agricultural Bank of China this year to claim the title of biggest I.P.O. in history. It also tops the $19.7 billion that Visa raised in its initial offering two years ago.

The pricing of G.M.’s stock has crept up in recent weeks as the company and its bankers encountered significant demand from investors around the world, people briefed on the matter said. Among the participants buying into the offering are Asian sovereign wealth funds and SAIC Motor, a major G.M. partner in China.

At a market value of roughly $50 billion, G.M. will fall behind its rival Ford Motor, which carried out its own costly reorganization but avoided bankruptcy.

G.M.’s offering was underwritten by a bevy of banks, led by Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, who have agreed to accept a lower-than-average fee in return for taking a piece of the high-profile assignment.