Sprint Lets Its Fingers Do the Walking for Bidders of Directory Sub

In order to raise much needed cash, Sprint Corp. is looking to sell its yellow pages business-a cash cow that would be attractive to financial buyers active in the industry-said analysts. On March 1, Sprint said to increase its financial flexibility and maintain strong liquidity and good credit ratings, it would be monetizing non-strategic assets, the directory publishing business among them. Accordingly, it has hired Deutsche Bank AG unit Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown and Salomon Smith Barney to explore valuations for the business. unit There has been a fair amount of activity in the directory publishing sector in the last year, at multiples in the seven to 12.6 times EBITDA range. With analysts expecting Sprint’s directory business to generate between $250 million and $300 million in EBITDA in the coming year, at a conservative eight times EBITDA multiple the unit should garner more than $2 billion in a takeout.