News blog

Cupid

  • BY: Andrew Hore |
  • POSTED: 13/10/2014 |

Richard Griffiths has nearly doubled his stake in online dating firm Cupid to 8.9%.

Griffiths took his stake above 3% in August. Kestrel Partners has also been increasing its stake in Cupid and it had reached 18.2% in August having passed 3% one year earlier. The share price has continued to decline as this buying has gone on.

Former boss Bill Dobbie remains the second largest shareholder in Cupid with 17.6% - he is still a non-executive director. Phil Gripton was appointed chief executive of Cupid at the beginning of December 2013.

At 20.75p a share, Cupid is valued at £14.8m. At the end of June 2014, Cupid had an NAV of 43p a share. This includes £11.4m of cash, which is just over one-third of the figure. A final dividend of 3p a share was announced for 2013 but paid at the beginning of July and cost £2.1m.

There is also £11.7m of deferred consideration due in more than one year which relates to disposals which will generate £26m of cash over three years. There is also deferred consideration included in short-term debtors. A further £2.53m of deferred consideration was received in the first half of 2014 taking the total received to £9.18m. Further deferred consideration near the end of the year will help Cupid to generate cash in the fourth quarter or to put it another way there will be a further cash outflow from operations.

However, Cupid is losing money and reported a £3.04m loss in the first half of 2014, as revenues declined from £16.5m to £7.18m. Cupid even lost money before admin expenses. The interim cash outflow from operations was £3.11m. Further disposals are a possibility.

Cupid will try to catch up in the market through the launch of Tangle, a mobile matchmaking app this month.

Download the latest AIM Journal from http://www.hubinvest.com/AIMPDFSeptember2014_60.pdf

© 2024 Aim Micro. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Browse by issue
All issues
Popular tags
All tags

betbrokers, financial, gold, health, leisure, media, mobile, resources, services, technology

AIM Micro feeds

Keep up to date with articles published at AIMMicro.com. Subscribe to AIM Micro RSS Feeds