Yell calls off public listing

LONDON, England -- Yell Group, the UK's No.1 telephone directories company, cancelled its public listing on Monday amid uncertainty over volatile market conditions.

Yell, which owns the Yellow Pages and Business Pages in Britain, is the third European company to postpone a public offering in the past week -- adding to speculation that other IPOs could also be called off.

The directories group -- along with its private equity owners Apax Partners and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst -- said they were abandoning its £2 billion ($3.1 billion) IPO, planned for Wednesday, "in light of poor equity market conditions."

Yell had hoped to raise as much as £750 million from sales of new shares, while the private equity owners -- who bought Yell from BT Group a year ago for £2.1 billion -- hoped to raise £300 million through the sale of existing shares.

"We are now in a situation where the IPO market has come to a halt,'' Neil Austin, head of New Issues at KPMG Corporate Finance, told Reuters. He added that many companies are expected to wait until September or October before going public.

On Sunday, UK improvements firm Focus Wickes said it was cancelling its £1 billion IPO set for Tuesday, while Italian fashion house Prada scrapped its 1 billion euro listing last Wednesday.

The recent IPO cancellations could add pressure on Burberry, the UK fashion house which is scheduled to be floated by Great Universal Stores. Burberry is due to price its shares on July 12, with public trading to begin shortly after.

However, some analysts believe Burberry has a better chance of success than other IPOs.

"Burberry has a scarcity value, as it will be the only listed luxury goods group in the UK. It would be surprising if that didn't get away,'' Nick Bubb, retail analyst at SG Securities, told Reuters.