WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) - General Motors Corp. is selling its entire equity stake in Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. as the company refocuses its Asia-Pacific strategy toward "high-growth markets," the automaker said Wednesday.

The equity stake in Fuji Heavy (FUJHF)(FUJHY), which GM (GM) acquired in 2000, amounts to about 20%. Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) will pay GM about $315 million in cash in acquiring about 8.7% of this interest.

GM said it plans to divest the other 11.4% via an open-market buyback program that Fuji Heavy announced earlier Wednesday and via market sales if necessary. The divestiture is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter.

Fuji Heavy is a Japanese conglomerate best known as the manufacturer of Subaru automobiles.

By mutual agreement, GM also intends to end its alliance with Fuji Heavy, bringing to an end their Saab crossover vehicle development program. Instead, GM will work with its other strategic partners in Asia.

Both companies "came to the conclusion that there were not enough collaborative projects to sustain the alliance and that each of our interests could be better served through a different approach," said Troy Clarke, GM's group vice president and chief of its Asia-Pacific operations.

GM, in the midst of a wrenching restructuring program, said cash proceeds received and any potential gain on the Fuji Heavy sale will be recorded in the fourth quarter.

Also Wednesday, GM will make a Securities and Exchange Commission filing describing a restatement of second-quarter financial statements to reflect a reduction of $700 million to $800 million in the carrying value of its Fuji Heavy stock.

Meanwhile, a published report said GM and the United Auto Workers are close to striking a deal that would cut the automaker's health-care costs.

In its online edition, the Detroit News said the deal under discussion could yield cuts of more than $1 billion in annual health costs. That's about a sixth of 2005's estimated health-care bill, which the newspaper said could approach $6 billion .

Such a deal would affect both GM's current staff and covered retirees, but the Detroit News report noted that people familiar with the talks say they could still fall apart.

And on a related note, whether auto-parts manufacturer Delphi Corp. (DPH) files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection may hinge on concessions that the company can wring from former parent GM and from the UAW, according to a New York Times report.

Delphi's reportedly preparing to make a bankruptcy filing as early as this week but may not carry it out depending on what concessions it can realize.

Robert Miller, named in June as Delphi's chief executive, has said publicly that the company's likely to file for bankruptcy by Oct. 17 , when U.S. bankruptcy laws change, at the latest.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-05-05 0714ET Copyright (c) 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Copyright (C) 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.