Merrill Lynch has earned a fee windfall of £33m (€53m) from the £2.1bn buy-out of Yell, the UK directories business spun off from British Telecom.

The bulge bracket firm, which has suffered from poor second-quarter results, earned the fee from advising buyers Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst and Apax Partners on the acquisition, as well as organising the debt package behind the buy-out, cleared by the UK regulators last week.