The Carlyle Group and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, two private equity firms, are selling a further $428m (€325m) worth of shares in Dex Media after making $1.9bn when they floated the US directories business six months ago.

Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, the same three banks that were joint bookrunners of the $1bn initial public offering last July, are also leading the secondary offering.