Yellow Pages (TSE:Y) executives highlighted improved profitability and a slowing pace of revenue declines during the company’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call, while also reiterating plans for voluntary pension contributions and announcing a quarterly dividend.
Revenue trends and key drivers
President and CEO Sherilyn King said the company was “quite pleased” with fourth-quarter results, citing “good profitability, a strong cash balance, and…momentum across our revenue initiatives.” King noted that the decline rate of total revenues improved year-over-year.
Tortis attributed the quarterly revenue decline mainly to lower sales of higher-margin digital media and print products, and “to a lesser extent” lower-margin digital service products, which she said created pressure on gross profit margin.
The quarter also included an impact from the Canada Post worker strike. Tortis said print revenues benefited from the recognition of approximately CAD 0.5 million of revenue deferred from the third quarter. Excluding that effect, she said the decline rate for total revenues would have been 7.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025, compared with 8.1% in the same period last year.
- Digital revenue: Down 5.6% year-over-year to CAD 39.7 million, which Tortis described as an improvement from the 6.2% decline reported in the prior quarter. She said the decline primarily reflected a lower digital customer count, partially offset by higher average spend per customer.
- Print revenue: Down 10.9% year-over-year to CAD 8.4 million. Tortis said print customer counts declined, while spend per customer improved year-over-year due to price increases. Excluding the Canada Post labor disruption effect, she said print revenues would have declined 15.6% year-over-year in the quarter.
Profitability and expense actions
Management emphasized improved earnings in the quarter. King said adjusted EBITDA for the quarter and full year represented 20.8% and 21.6% of revenue, respectively. Tortis reported adjusted EBITDA of CAD 10.5 million for the fourth quarter, up CAD 2.3 million, or 27.3%, from the prior year.
Adjusted EBITDA margin rose to 21.8% in the fourth quarter from 16.0% a year earlier. Tortis said the improvement reflected “optimization in cost of sales and reductions in other operating costs,” including workforce reductions and associated employee expenses. She also cited lower variable compensation expense tied to changes in the executive management team earlier in the year, and the impact of the company’s share price on cash-settled stock-based compensation expense.
Tortis added that these efficiencies were partially offset by revenue pressure and ongoing investments in telesales force capacity. She cautioned that “revenue pressures, coupled with continued investment in our telesales force capacity,” even with continued optimization, “will continue to cause some pressure on margins in upcoming quarters.”
On stock-based compensation, Tortis said revaluation of cash-settled stock-based compensation liabilities resulted in a CAD 0.3 million recovery in the fourth quarter of 2025, compared with a CAD 1.5 million charge in the same period of 2024.
For the full year, adjusted EBITDA was CAD 43.0 million, representing 21.6% of revenues, according to Tortis.
Cash generation, capital spending, and balance sheet
Tortis said adjusted EBITDA less CapEx increased CAD 2.4 million year-over-year to CAD 10.1 million in the fourth quarter, driven by higher adjusted EBITDA and lower CapEx spending compared with the prior year. For the full year 2025, adjusted EBITDA less CapEx was CAD 41.5 million, or 20.9% of revenues.
Both King and Tortis pointed to a strong cash position. King said Yellow Pages ended January 2026 with approximately CAD 64 million in cash, a figure Tortis also reiterated.
Net income, headcount, pension contributions, and dividend
Net income rose to CAD 7.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 from CAD 2.7 million in the year-ago quarter, which Tortis said was principally due to higher adjusted EBITDA and lower income taxes. For the full year of 2025, net income totaled CAD 18.1 million.
On staffing, Tortis said total workforce was 499 employees as of Dec. 31, 2025, compared with 565 a year earlier, a decrease of 11.7%.
Management also provided an update on pension funding plans previously announced in May 2025. King said the company had intended to voluntarily contribute an additional CAD 4 million to the defined pension plan by the end of June 2026, subject to board review. She added that on Feb. 11, 2026, the board approved completing the remaining CAD 2 million of the announced voluntary cash contributions by the end of the first quarter of 2026, which Tortis reiterated.
Separately, the board declared a dividend of CAD 0.25 per common share, payable on March 16, 2026 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 25, 2026.
Call close
The company did not take any analyst questions during the call. King closed by thanking participants and said Yellow Pages would speak with investors again next quarter in May 2026.
About Yellow Pages (TSE:Y)
Yellow Pages Ltd is a media and marketing solutions company in Canada, offering small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) services to help them connect with local consumers. The company has two reportable segments namely Yellow Pages and Other. It generates maximum revenue from the Yellow Pages segment.
