R.H. Donnelley Corp., the largest independent U.S. publisher of Yellow Pages directories and owner of Arapahoe County-based Dex Media Inc., said its two biggest shareholders sold their combined 26 percent stake in the company. The stock fell 5 percent, or $3.20, to close at $60.01 on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Carlyle Group, a Washington-based private-equity company, and New York venture-capital company Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe each sold about 9.42 million shares, R.H. Donnelley said in a statement. The shares were acquired when the Cary, N.C.-based publisher bought Dex Media in January. Based on R.H. Donnelley’s 71.5 million shares outstanding, the investors each held 13 percent of the company.
The sale allows Donnelley to diversify its shareholder base, spokesman Tyler Gronbach said. “This benefits us because there was a fairly large overhang on the stock with everyone wondering when the firms were going to sell. This eliminates that overhang.”
R.H. Donnelley bought Dex for $4.2 billion to expand into Midwest markets.
