Yell, owner of Yellow Pages, yesterday faced an investor revolt over its bonus payments and calls for its chief executive and chief operating officer to step down, The Times has learnt.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI), whose members control about 20 per cent of the stock market, has issued an “amber-top alert”, signalling concerns over generous management bonuses at Yell after the 87 per cent drop in the group's share price in the past year. Senior executives have received bonuses worth 110 per cent of their salaries.

The group's market capitalisation has fallen to £484 million - considerably lower that its £3.8 billion debt load.

John Condron, the chief executive, received a performance-related bonus of £935,000, on top of an £850,000 salary. John Davis, the chief financial officer, received a £555,000 bonus on top of £505,000 in basic pay. Both received double-digit salary increases.

Separately, Pensions Investment Research Consultants (PIRC), the shareholder organisation, has opposed the remuneration report and called for its members to oppose the re-election of Mr Condron and Mr Davis. It said the combined awards had the potential to be excessive and cited particular concerns about the contracts of Mr Condron and Mr Davis, which allow them to receive bonuses even if they were to be removed from office.

“Executive directors have one-year rolling contracts but termination payments include on-target bonus and early vesting of share awards,” PIRC said. PIRC highlighted concerns about the level of the directors' bonuses in the light of the share price fall.

“Over the year, directors received a salary increase of approximately 9 per cent and bonus awards equal to three-and-a-half times [their] salary. At the same time the dividend was reduced by 30 per cent and the share price has fallen 80 per cent,” PIRC said.

An ABI spokesman added that it decided against issuing the more serious red-top alert because the bonuses were related to financial targets achieved by the executives. However, he said that shareholders should consider whether these bonuses should have been accepted given the recent performance of the company's shares.

There have been concerns in recent weeks as to whether Yell could be close to breaching its banking covenants, although the company has insisted that it is in a strong financial position.

Mr Davis recently defended Yell's financial situation in an interview with The Times. He said he would not be panicked into financial restructuring or asset disposals. “We are comfortably supporting our level of debt and a rights issue, asset disposals or debt-for-equity swap is not needed,” he said. He added that the group had the full backing of its leading shareholders, which include Invesco. “We may not be recession-proof, but we do have resilience . . . The way to prove wrong negative comments about Yell is to deliver.”

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