ATTLEBORO — Sensata Technologies Holding B.V., the former Texas Instruments sensors-and-controls division spun off three years ago, plans to sell up to $500 million worth of stock in an initial public offering, the company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday.

Sensata said it would use the money for debt repayment and general corporate purposes. The company had $2.42 billion in total debt as of Sept. 30, according to its IPO prospectus filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Sensata was part of Texas Instruments until 2006, when it was taken private by a group led by the private-equity firm Bain Capital LLC and renamed.

The company has struggled in recent years and has not posted a profit since Bain took it over. Its sales fell 31 percent to $796.86 million in the first nine months of this year compared with 2008, but its net loss over the same period narrowed to $41.61 million from $82.32 million last year.

Sensata, which has its headquarters in Attleboro, has been laying off workers since last year. It had about 946 employees in the U.S. as of Sept. 30, down from about 1,585 at the start of last year, according to regulatory filings. The company may cut more workers next year, the prospectus said.

Sensata hopes to be listed on either the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq Stock Market. The IPO’s underwriters are Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Credit Suisse Group.

Additional information is available at sensata.com.