UPDATE 1-US comfortable with GM IPO pricing, investors

* Gov't wants fair return for taxpayers

* US to take initial loss on first sale

WASHINGTON Nov 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. government is satisfied with pricing and the investor lineup in the General Motors Co [GM.UL] (GM.N) public offering, a senior Obama administration official said.

Ron Bloom, the administration's point man on auto restructuring, told Reuters Insider ahead of GM trading on Thursday that the government wants a fair return for taxpayers on its $50 billion investment, but also wants to "get out of this thing as soon as we can."

Treasury is reducing its stake in GM through the initial share sale from 61 percent to 37 percent at minimum. It could sell more shares initially to bring down taxpayer exposure to 33 percent, depending on whether an overallotment option is exercised.

Bloom said GM has done the right thing and pricing of $33 per share is a "fair deal" even though the partial sale represents a loss of roughly $9 billion on taxpayers' original investment.

"We're very comfortable with the way this went," Bloom said.

Treasury is bound by an agreement preventing new sales of its stock for six months, Bloom said. (For more on GM's IPO see [ID:nN11173673] ) (Reporting by John Crawley, editing by Matthew Lewis)