Time Warner Inc.’s cable unit filed for an initial public offering that may value the business at more than $40 billion and give investors a stake in the second-largest American cable-television provider for the first time.

Time Warner, the world’s largest media company, will retain an 84% stake in the cable business, its fastest-growing unit. Time Warner Chief Executive Officer Richard Parsons is taking the cable division public in a bet that it will help boost Time Warner’s share price. The IPO will also allow the cable business to use its shares to make acquisitions.

“It’s a positive,” an analyst at Argus Research in New York who rates the shares a buy, Joe Bonner, said. “It gives them a currency if they want to make an acquisition.”

Proceeds from the sale will go to Adelphia Communications Corp. creditors, who took 16% of the company when Adelphia was bought by Time Warner Cable in July. Under the terms of the acquisition, the creditors agreed to sell at least one-third of their stake.

The cable operations are worth about $43 billion, according to Morgan Stanley.Time Warner said the 16% stake was valued at $5.5 billion as of July 31.Stamford, Connecticut-based Time Warner Cable won’t receive any proceeds from the IPO. Adelphia creditors who received shares in Time Warner Cable include William Huff and his W.R. Huff Asset Management Co., Aurelius Capital Management, Catalyst Investment Management and Perry Capital LLC.

The filing set $100 million as a nominal amount for the offering as a formality to establish SEC fees and said the company will have the ticker TWC. The filing didn’t say how many shares would be sold, which investment banks will manage the offering or when the IPO may take place.

Time Warner spokeswoman Susan Duffy said she couldn’t comment beyond the document.