Yell upbeat on future prospects

Yell has major operations in the UK and US

Yell, Britain's biggest telephone directories publisher, has given an upbeat assessment of its prospects.

Announcing a 7% rise in half-year turnover to £586.6m ($987m), the firm said it was "on track to meet expectations for the full year".

Yell's floatation in July was the largest seen on the London Stock Exchange in two years.

The company said first-half underlying earnings rose 13.3% to £187.6m, from a previous figure of £165.6m.

Growth

Yell also declared its first dividend of 3p per share, which it said reflected strong organic growth.

But at the pre-tax level, the company unveiled a loss of £109.7m - up from a loss of £24.9m a year ago.

Yell said the latest loss reflected £77.3m in non-cash costs related to its stock market flotation.

The company is the biggest supplier of classified directory advertising in the UK, where it operates four businesses - Yellow Pages, Business Pages, Yell.com and the 118247 telephone service formerly known as Talking Pages.