BT sells yellow pages business

British Telecom today sold its Yellow Pages business, Yell, for £2.14bn to help cut its debt mountain.

Venture capitalists Apax Partners and US group Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst have bought the international directories company which includes the UK Yellow Pages and its US counterpart, the Yellow Book.

BT said the sale was a ‘‘significant step’’ in its restructuring programme which aims to slash a £28bn debt built up through international expansion and bidding for licences to operate third generation mobile phones.

But the deal is reported to be a knockdown price after analysts had earlier predicted that Yell could be sold for more than £3bn.