Yellow pages owner goes £1.4bn into red as it announces name change

Yell Group said printed products, such as the Yellow Pages, would not change their identity but wants the parent company and its digital offerings such as Yell.com and eMarketplace to fall under the new name, pronounced “high boo”.

While chief executive Mike Pocock has admitted the word means nothing, the company said hibu told a “story” and the logo’s soft-shouldered edges represented the “people behind the identity”.

The eMarketplace, which will be called market.hibu.com, provides small businesses with the infrastructure to sell online, without having to set up their own website.

Shares in Yell Group tumbled 23 per cent to close at 2.41p after it revealed the pre-tax loss in the year to March 31, compared to a £66.3m profit in the previous year.

The name-change is subject to shareholder approval at its annual meeting on July 26.

The huge loss was largely a non-cash write-down on the value of its print business, with underlying earnings declining £47m to £461m. The group has slashed costs by cutting staff by 700 and reducing overall IT costs.