Topic: How To Invest

Pat, I would love to have your thoughts on Yellow Media and its sale of the Trader assets, and their ability to continue to pay a high yield. I hold Yellow Media for the yield and I am increasingly getting concerned. Thanks for years of great advice and market commentary.

Article Excerpt

Yellow Media Inc., $3.59, symbol YLO on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 640.1 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; www.ypg.com), converted to a corporation from an income trust on November 1, 2010. As part of the conversion, it changed its name to Yellow Media from Yellow Pages Income Fund. Yellow Media is the largest telephone-directory publisher in Canada, where it owns the Yellow Pages and Pages Jaunes trademarks. It also operates web sites devoted to classified advertising. The company used to print free, advertising-based publications, including Auto Trader, Buy & Sell and Renters News, through 98%-owned Trader Corp. However, it recently sold Trader Corp. for $745 million in cash. Yellow Media needed to sell Trader to lower its high $2.2 billion of debt and hang on to its investment-grade debt rating. A downgrade could have forced the company to issue debt at higher interest rates. That in turn could also have led to a dividend cut to conserve cash and pay the higher interest costs…