NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Bermuda-based Scottish Re Group Inc., the reinsurer bailed out by a buyout group last year, said it hired Merrill Lynch & Co. and KBW Inc. to explore selling units.

Scottish Re retained Merrill, the third-biggest securities firm by market value, to sell all or part of its North American life reinsurance business. The company hired KBW, the investment bank specialising in financial services, to seek a buyer for its international life reinsurance unit, according to a regulatory filing today.

The shares trade for 12 cents over the counter, down from $3.89 a year ago on the New York Stock Exchange. The company went public in 1998 at $15 a share.