TOKYO -- General Motors Corp. will sell most of its stake in Suzuki Motor Corp. back to the Japanese carmaker, raising about $2 billion in much-needed cash, according to a Reuters report.

The sale would leave GM with a 3 percent stake in Suzuki, down from 20.4 percent.

It ends months of speculation about a possible unraveling of their equity relationship after the world's biggest auto maker unloaded its entire 20 percent stake in Japan's Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. last year, also to raise money.

GM said it expected a pre-tax gain of $550 million to $750 million from the sale. News of the sale caused GM shares to rise as much as 3.6 percent, their biggest one-day gain since late January.

GM and Suzuki, which first formed a capital tie-up in 1981, said they would continue to work together at the operational level. Suzuki also owns an 11 percent equity stake in GM's South Korean unit, GM Daewoo Automotive & Technology Co.