Yell chair to go over Goodwin pension row

YELL chairman Bob Scott – who as a Royal Bank of Scotland director rubber-stamped Sir  Fred Goodwin’s £17m pension – said yesterday that he will not stand for re-election to the directory publisher’s board.

Scott, who had been chairman of the Yellow Pages publisher since June 2002, bowed out after shareholders expressed their concern over his role in RBS’s fate. Scott’s decision follows the resignation of former RBS chairman Sir Tom McKillop from the board of BP under the threat of a similar protest vote from investors over his role at the failed bank

The news came as the debt-laden company confirmed that it is actively looking at all refinancing options and said it could not rule out asset sales ahead of April 2011, when a large tranche of its debt is due for repayment.

However the company said its cashflow should be strong enough to meet interest payments and pay down some of its £4.2bn debt this year. Yell also announced that it took a £1.3bn writedown in the full year to March 2009 and forecast a 20 per cent drop in core profit this quarter. The writedown was mostly against its Yell Publicidad division, which has been hit by the severe recession in Spain.

Adjusted earnings fell 1.8 per cent at constant currencies to a better-than-expected £816m.

But the group said it would be providing guidance only on a quarterly basis for the time being.

“In this uncertain world, a quarter ahead is all we can see,” said chief financial officer John Davis.

Shares in Yell closed 2.17 per cent lower at 45p.