Yell lines up new float
- Added:
- Jun 30, 2003
Yell is expected to raise as much as £500m from the float, which is being co-ordinated by Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, according to the Guardian. It is likely to use the funds to pay off debt and for possible acquisitions in the US market, where it is the fifth biggest Yellow Pages publisher.
The company will be one of the first to brave the stock market since the technology crash and certainly one of the largest in recent years. The IPO is likely to value Yell at more than £2bn, equivalent to its acquisition price.
Yell was purchased from BT in 2001 for more than £2bn by venture capital groups Apax Partners and Hicks Muse Tate & Furst.
The new owners went some way towards completing an IPO scheduled for June 2002, but cancelled the floatation at a cost of £15m, on concerns about market sentiment. At that time, BT had just purchased Scoot for £8m, which may have also provided Yell with food for thought.
According to a report in the Guardian, Yell's advisors have concluded that there is enough demand from institutions to proceed with the float, which is likely to result in CEO John Condron and FD John Davis becoming paper millionaires.
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