APN News & Media, the Australasian media corp of which Tony O’Reilly’s Independent News & Media (INM) owns a majority 39.1 percent, is selling its online classifieds service Finda.co.nz to New Zealand’s Yellow group, a Yellow Pages operator. The sale also involves the Finda, Wises maps, menus.co.nz, UBD and APNData services, though APN will retain the Finda name at home in Austalia and no sale price is given, BusinessDay.co.nz reports. APN’s online business made $8 million revenue in H108, up 70 percent from a low base, earnings show.

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The move seems designed to satisfy INM’s decision, announced last month, to offload €100 million in non-core assets - a move that sparked speculation of a The Independent sell-off, even though the UK paper is clearly one of the group’s flagships. INM got several offers for its APN stake late last year, but each foundered as the credit markets dried up, so now APN itself is making sell-offs. APN CEO Brendan Hopkins (via Reuters): “Whilst we remain committed to growing our online business, we will continue to take advantage of opportunities to realise value for non-core assets as they arise.”