Analysts at New York City-based asset management firm Sanford C Bernstein wrote an open letter to new Barclays CEO Jes Staley with a simple message: sell the U.S. card business, sell off the U.S. investment bank, and sell the African business, WallStreetJournal reported.

Staley, a J.P. Morgan alumnus, is currently assessing U.K.-based Barclay’s strategy amid lackluster returns since taking on the job in late 2015, according to WSJ.

Barclays could sell its retail banking operations in parts of Africa including South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius, Botswana and Zambia, while keeping some investment banking activities there, FinancialTimes reported in December.

Barclays has operated in parts of Africa for almost a century but the the devaluation of the South African rand against the British pound hit the group’s profits. The African unit’s return on equity was 9.3 percent in 2014 — below the bank’s target of 11 percent, FinancialTimes reported, according to an earlier AFKInsider report.

From eFinancialNews. Story by Giles Turner.

The note from Bernstein’s analyst team, led by Chirantan Barua, notes that Barclays’ stock is almost back at levels when former CEO Bob Diamond “got booted” — in their words — in 2012.

In four years’ time, Bernstein is hoping that Barclays is “a pure-play U.K. retail and commercial franchise with the best technology platform in Europe.” The analysts urge,  “Make it happen…at least you will not be booed for not trying”.

Barua thinks Staley should “hit it big.” He writes: “At least that increases the chance of success and if it fails, you go out in glory for trying and are not booed to your P45!”

Hitting it big means doing three things: Unwind Lehman, sell the U.S. cards business, and get out of Africa

Barclays is preparing to sell some of its 62 percent stake in Barclays Africa Group Ltd, the publicly-traded entity that houses most of its African business, according to a January report in The Wall Street Journal.

For Bernstein, Barclays needs to exit completely. “The Africa business has absolutely no synergy whatsoever with the rest of the bank – be it with retail, commercial or the investment bank… So simply put, you should let the franchise go.”

A Barclays spokesman declined to comment.

Read more at eFinancialNews.