Yell, the directories business sold by BT, has spent £15m (€23.5m) on its £1.1bn initial public offering that was postponed in July, about half of the total costs of the flotation.

The financing put in place for the purchase of Yell from BT and the acquisition of McLeod, a US directories business, also led to increased interest and goodwill amortisation. In its financial results for the quarter ended June 30 Yell said: "As a consequence, the group produced a pre-tax loss of £30.9m, compared to a pre-tax profit of £29.3m for the same period last year."