Axa plans to list a minority stake in its U.S. operations, which include its Axa Equitable business and a majority stake in AB.

The French insurer announced the plans this morning, saying the offering would likely consist of a slice of its U.S. life and savings business and of its 64% interest in AB, the asset management firm formerly known as AllianceBernstein, reports Ignites. The initial public offering would occur sometime during the first half of 2018, “subject to market conditions.”

“Our U.S. operations would be better positioned as a listed company in the U.S., operating on a level playing field under local regulatory rules, and would benefit from greater strategic flexibility to deliver sustainable and profitable growth,” said CEO Thomas Buberl in the announcement. “The current environment is supportive of this strategic initiative, which would create significant additional financial flexibility to accelerate the transformation of the Axa Group around health, capital-light savings, protection and P&C commercial lines, our priority lines of business,” Buberl said.

The listing plans punctuate a tumultuous 10 days at AB. Last week, the company announced that AB CEO Peter Kraus and most of the firm’s board of directors had been fired. Nine directors, including Kraus, were ousted, and six new directors were named in their place, including several Axa board members and AB’s new president and CEO, Seth Bernstein.

“With Seth Bernstein, the new AB CEO, we have the unique opportunity together to create a leading US life insurance, annuity and asset management company,” said Mark Pearson, president and CEO of Axa Financial’s U.S. division, in a statement announcing the plans Wednesday.

The release also quotes Bernstein. “At AB, we’re excited to be taking this next step in our journey with AXA US and the AXA Group” he said. “We’ll continue to manage assets for both entities, and look forward to further aligning our businesses from here with new services and opportunities.”

The Axa statement makes clear that the parent company sees its core business lines as insurance products, not asset management, and that the insurance businesses will swallow up the offering proceeds, though some could be returned to shareholders.

The remaining 36% ownership stake in AB is expected to remain a separate publicly traded entity, according to unnamed sources quoted in The Wall Street Journal.

But the fact that AB shares are already listed threatens to complicate Axa’s plans to spin out and IPO its U.S. business.

“It remains to be seen how they will do this in detail, as AllianceBernstein already is listed in the U.S.,” said Daniel Bischof, a Zurich-based analyst at Baader Helvea, in a Bloomberg interview.