Yell Group Profits Remain Strong

Directory and media publisher the Yell Group has today announced strong growth in profitability over the first six months of the year, in spite of underperformance within its core American division.

The company behind the Yellow Pages and Yell.com announced a profit (excluding tax) of £122 million for the first six months of 2007, which will see them incur liability largely at 30% within the current UK tax framework.

This sees an improvement on the results posted by the company for the same phase last year, at which point it had increased profits to £87 million on the year previous.

The Yell Group, based centrally in the UK posted an increase in revenues across its business divisions including its website by around 15%, sitting at just under $1 billion for the half. The news comes despite sluggish performance in its US operation as a result of stiff competition and well-established competitor brand alignment.

The company has, as a result, been forced to offer advertising and listings within its US version directory in order to attract enough advertiser interest and revenue to make the publication happen.

At present the market in the US is substantially more crowded, which has made trading more hostile for the UK directory giant.

Speaking today on the figures, executive John Condron said that the company had seen through the first half of what was a tricky year with strong performance, and was likely to look to build on that growth over the next six months.

Whilst the firm looks set to meet prior profit targets set for the year end, it remains committed to increasing returns on shareholder capital in order to attract further outside investment and continue to expand their international business model.

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