Hibu warns its shares could be worthless Debt-laden Hibu, the publisher of the Yellow Pages, warned on Wednesday that negotiations with investors over restructuring could result in little or no value being attributed to its shares. The group also admitted it would miss earnings targets this financial year, prompting renewed fears that bond investors will seize control of the group. The telephone directory publisher, formerly known as Yell, said core earnings had suffered because of a fall at its legacy product of printing paper telephone books, alarming some investors. The company's debts dwarf its £16.2m market capitalisation. In early trading, Hibu shares fell 37 per cent to 0.43p. It has until March to agree to a debt restructuring. However, the company insisted it was delivering cost savings and said it remained cash-generative. Mike Pocock, chief executive officer at Hibu, said: "We are confident in the group's four-year strategy . . . The board is encouraged by the constructive discussions under way with its lenders concerning a balance sheet restructuring, the aim of which is to provide the group with an appropriate capital structure to support the legacy business while enabling growth and development of the digital stratgegy. He added: "As previously stated, a number of capital structure options are being considered. While no decision has yet been made, certain options may result in a dilution of existing shareholder interests including some options which may attribute little or no value to the group's ordinary shares. The group said in its results statement in July that the decline of legacy product revenue was negatively affecting earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda). It said these trends continue to impact on current and expected financial performance and it is now expected that ebitda would underperform market expectations for the current financial year. Moody's, the credit rating agency, warned in May that Hibu might need to write off half its debts. The warning followed an attempt by the company to rebrand itself a digital business called Hibu in the hope of arresting falling revenues.