Shares of Pages Jaunes, the directories business of France Télécom, started life at a premium on the Euronext exchange on Thursday after pricing its €1.26bn ($1.5bn) flotation at the top end of expectations after employing a competitive premarketing auction.

All nine potential bookrunners for Pages Jaunes had to compete for the business by carrying out premarketing for two weeks. The banks submitted suggested price ranges and the bookrunners were chosen the weekend before the launch of the issue.