Yell Falls Most Since May After Saying First-Quarter Profit Declined 26%

Yell Group Plc, the publisher of the U.K.’s yellow pages directories, fell the most in more than two months in London trading after saying first-quarter profit fell 26 percent on lower sales.

Yell dropped as much as 16 percent, the most since May 18. Net income fell to 11.1 million pounds ($17.3 million) from 14.9 million pounds a year earlier, the Reading, England-based company said in a Regulatory News Service statement today. Revenue declined 7.5 percent to 439.6 million pounds.

“The anticipated economic recovery is proving slower than expected,” the company said in today’s statement.

Yell has seen sales retreat as advertisers cut spending on print listings. In May, the company said Chief Executive Officer John Condron and Chief Financial Officer John Davis are going to leave.

The company’s second quarter is now “largely sold” and Yell expects the rate of “organic decline” at constant exchange rates to be about 11 percent, the publisher said today. For the third quarter the company forecasts an organic decline of about 9 percent.

Yell retreated as much as 4.93 pence to 25.26 pence and traded at 26.11 pence as of 8:30 a.m. The stock has retreated 32 percent this year, giving the company a market value of 626.8 million pounds.

To contact the reporter on this story: Colm Heatley in Belfast at cheatley@bloomberg.net

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