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3i and Veronis Suhler Stevenson target yellow pages business17/04/2003. Source: AltAssets. 
 European private equity firm 3i group and New York-based Veronis Suhler Stevenson are in negotiations to acquire Herold Business Data, a yellow pages business jointly owned by Verizon Communications and Telekom Austria.
The acquisition represents a further step towards establishing a pan-European directories network for the 3i/Veronis Suhler Stevenson consortium. Last year the two buy-out firms acquired yellow pages from Royal KPN NV of the Netherlands and Finland's Sonera Oyj.
There is a growing trend for European telephone companies to shed their directory businesses in an attempt to reduce the debt amassed from buying third generation mobile phone licences, according to a report from Bloomberg.
The largest buy-out of a European directories business was Apax Partners and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst's £2.1bn acquisition of Yell Group from BT. But that record could well be surpassed by Telecom Italia's sale of Seat Pagine Gialle, which is currently being vied for by US private equity houses Texas Pacific and Blackstone.
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