News that lenders need more time to thrash out agreement on restructuring Yell's £3.8bn debt pile is up there with other shockers such as Kim Jong-Il winning the North Korean elections and the return of big banking bonuses.

With 1,000 entities spread among 300 creditors, Yell has enough lenders to fill a telephone directory. Achieving consensus was always going to take time. But the UK yellow pages publisher is, like everyone else, suffering in the downturn with revenues and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation heading south.