The Yellow Pages Group has lost a key director.An insider confirmed today that Andrew Day has quit Yellow's board.The resignation is a blow to Yellow, which will lose the director's international expertise.Mr Day is a former chief executive of Telstra's Y
The Yellow Pages Group has lost a key director.
An insider confirmed today that Andrew Day has quit Yellow’s board.
The resignation is a blow to Yellow, which will lose the director’s international expertise.
Mr Day is a former chief executive of Telstra’s Yellow & White Pages division, Sensis, and former chief executive of the pan-European directory company Truvo.
Yellow has been struggling with heavy losses blamed on the high debt load taken on by its private equity owners.
In 2007, CCMP (now Unitas Capital) and Ontario Teachers Plan paid Telecom $2.2 billion for Yellow.
Latest financial statements for the June 2009 year showed ebitda of $162.7 million, down 3% on the previous year. But interest payments alone were $157 million, contributing to a $338 million loss.
The company has also been grappling with a major upgrade to its website, the often-less-useful-than-Google yellow.co.nz, still months away; a database thief; and at times comically bad usability issues with its 018 service, now offshored to the Philippines.
A spokeswoman said Yellow may make a comment on Mr Day’s departure later today.
Yellow had no comment on renewed market rumour that its lenders - NZ, ANZ and Westpac - are getting nervous and pushing for a Yellow Pages Group sale.
Collectively, the banks are owed around $1.72 billion.
As previously reported by NBR's print edition (see our Print Archive article Banks fear the Yellow Peril as loan runs out), the lenders have even canvassed the option of bringing in a receiver - but a sale cannot be forced with the company still inside its banking covenants.
