3i, the UK-quoted private equity group, and its media-focused buy-out partner Veronis Suhler Stevenson have appointed Goldman Sachs and UBS to evaluate whether to sell or float Yellow Brick Road, its directory business. A deal could be worth €2bn ($2.6bn).

Crevan O'Grady, the 3i investment director responsible for Yellow Brick Road, said that the two investors would hope to achieve a multiple in excess of the 10.3 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation achieved when Dutch publisher VNU sold its directory business to a private equity consortium last year.