LONDON – Freescale Semiconductor, the U.S. chip company that spun off from Motorola in 2004 and taken private by a private equity consortium in 2006, has filed for an initial public offering of common shares.

Freescale Semiconductor Holdings I Ltd. of Bermuda plans to sell 43,500,000 common shares at a price of between $22 and $24 per share, which would raise between $957 million and $1.04 billion. This would be about one fifth or sixth of the shares outstanding after the issuance of the shares.

Freescale has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 6,525,000 common shares to cover over-allotments. The common shares have been approved for listing on the New York Stock Exchange, subject to official notice of issuance, under the symbol FSL.

In 2010 Freescale made a net loss of $1.05 billion on net sales of $4.46 billion, according to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Freescale posted a net loss, including charges, of $148 million on net sales of $1.19 billion, in the first quarter of 2011.

Freescale said it would use the proceeds of the IPO together with cash on hand to repay an aggregate of approximately $1.1 billion in outstanding indebtedness. This also includes payments of  of between $2.9 million and $$33.6 million to each to the private equity companies that took Freescale private; includinng Blackstone Management Partners, TC Group, TPG and Permira Advisors.