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Skye Bank, a Nigerian lender, is planning to sell its overseas subsidiaries to improve its capital ratios, according to a report by Bloomberg on Tuesday. The announcement comes four months after the Central Bank of Nigeria sacked Skye Bank’s board and management in July for allowing the bank to breach regulatory requirements for minimum liquidity, capital adequacy, and non-performing loans.

People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Skye Bank is looking to sell off its majority stakes in the bank’s subsidiaries in Guinea, Gambia, and Sierra Leone. Skye Bank has reportedly appointed Greenwich Trust, a Lagos-based investment bank, as a financial adviser on the deals and bidders are expected to submit expressions of interest by November 18th.

In addition to selling the subsidiaries, Skye Bank also plans to relinquish its international licence, which requires a capital adequacy ratio of 15 per cent and shareholder funds of N50 billion. The bank will subsequently revert to a national licence that requires a CAR of 10 per cent and shareholder funds of N25 billion. As of December 2015, Skye Bank had a CAR of 12 per cent, according to Bloomberg.

“Right now, they are short of required capital, so if they strip off all those assets they will raise some money and it will mean that their capital adequacy requirement will be lowered by the central bank,” Omotola Abimbola, an analyst at Afrinvest West Africa, told Bloomberg.

Impacted by huge loan impairment charges, Skye Bank posted a pre-tax loss of N37.65 billion for the 2015 financial year compared with a profit of N19.45 billion a year earlier. Gross earnings, however, rose 13 per cent to N163.88 billion as against N145.72 billion posted in the previous year. Skye Bank’s stock price has fallen by nearly 64 per cent so far this year and further declined by 3.51 per cent on Wednesday to close at 57 kobo per share.