Yell posts 1.4bn-pound loss, changes name

Yellow Pages publisher Yell has posted a 1.4bn-pound loss for the 12 months to the end of March after writing down goodwill on its US, UK, Spanish, Chilean and Peruvian operations.

A write-down is not the same as a cash loss - on that front Yell generated revenues of £1.61bn, a decrease of 14% on the prior year, although there is a chink of light in the numbers, digital services revenues grew 112% to £134m.

Yell has been stuck on the "burning platform" of printed directories, while also struggling under a huge debt of £2.2bn, even after paying back £565m over the last year.

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The company is fighting a war on two fronts. It must reorganise its capital structure, a process which it says is underway with advice from Goldman Sachs while simultaneously growing its digital offering to small- and medium-sized business - with whom the firm already has strong links from its directories businesses.

On the second front Yell says it "has not progressed as fast as it would like in bringing new products to market, with the sheer scale and logistics of the task stretching its nascent teams."

As part of the transformation the company has announced all new products will be offered under the brand name "hibu" although the print products, which are sold under well-known brands in each country, will continue to be sold under the current names.

By 09:56 the stock had declined 13.4%.

BS