New Zealand-based insurer CBL Corp. Ltd. placed itself in voluntary administration after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand moved to put its unit, CBL Insurance Ltd., into interim liquidation.

CBL's managing director and CEO Peter Harris said this aims to prevent other regulators from taking action on the company following the central bank's move, The New Zealand Herald reported Feb. 25. He added that the administrators will work on a plan to restore "the hole" in the company's balance sheet, after it was required to strengthen reserves for its French construction business on CBL Insurance's books.

The plan will include selling the company's "run-off book of liabilities" which, if successful, could see CBL Insurance improve its regulatory solvency and help it emerge from interim liquidation, the CEO said.

CBL said in a statement that it appointed Brendon James Gibson and Neale Jackson of advisory and investment company KordaMentha as joint voluntary administrators of the company and some of its units.