Yell's £660m cash call to investors
Nov 11 2009 by Peter McCusker, The Journal
DIRECTORIES firm Yell is to raise £660m from investors after announcing the latest part of a drive to shore up its finances.
The fundraising proposal from the Yellow Pages owner is greater than the £500m expected following last week’s refinancing deal with creditors.
The firm also reported a 67% slide in pre-tax profits for the six months to September 30 to £38.7m as revenues fell 3.9% to £982.8m.
Revenues in the UK were down almost 13% to £305.3m in the six months, while profits fell to £121.2m from £136.1m.
This was after revenues from printed directories declined by almost 20% to £206.6m, following a near-15% drop in the number of advertisers.
The impact of the recession on demand also meant revenues per user fell 5.9% to £1,187m in the six month period.
More of Yell’s UK business is now online, with Yell.com producing revenues growth of 8.7% to £87.3m in the half year. The division now accounts for 29% of total UK sales, up from 23% a year ago.
Across the business, which also has operations in the United States and Spain, Yell said it was not expecting any significant improvement in revenues for the rest of the financial year.
It added: “Trading conditions continue to be challenging and we believe it is too early to declare that confidence has definitively returned to our core target customer base.”
