Thomson Directories, the classified telephone-directory publisher that competes with Yell and BT, has been put up for sale by its Italian owner, Seat Pagine Gialle.

Seat, which is listed in Milan but controlled by four private-equity firms including CVC, will also sell off its German arm and a handful of websites to concentrate on operations in Italy and Turkey.

Thomson, which has been hit by competition from the web and reduced spending by financial clients, is expected to achieve earnings of £25m this year and could change hands for £100m.

Seat failed to pay a dividend in March and blamed its UK arm for contributing to the lowering of group expectations.

Apax paid £220m for the company in 1999, selling it on to Seat little over a year later.

Lehman Brothers has been working on strategic options for Seat but is not expected to lead the Thomson sale.

Directories have been fertile ground for private-equity companies because of their strong cash flows.

However, fears over the future of the business model, online competition and high debt levels have spooked investors.

John Condron, the chief executive of Yell, will seek to reassure the market on Tuesday that he does not need to resort to an emergency fundraising or asset sales to pay off his company’s £3.7 billion of debt, the equivalent of five times earnings.

Yell, whose shares have halved since the start of the year, is expected to meet full-year earnings targets with free cash flow close to £300m, despite the deteriorating economy.

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