Bill Dobbie lifts Cupid stake to 17.6%

By GARETH MACKIE
Published on 08/03/2013 20:15

CUPID chief executive Bill Dobbie said his confidence in the business he founded was “as strong as ever” as he took advantage of the depressed share price to build his stake by almost £1 million.

Earlier this week the Edinburgh-based dating website operator delivered results showing a 31 per cent jump in annual profits and promising another year of “healthy growth” ahead.

However, despite an ongoing share buyback programme and a stream of “buy” notes from analysts, the company’s shares are still trading at little over half their level of last year after they slumped in recent weeks ahead of a documentary investigating the wider dating industry that was never aired.

They are also thought to have been afected by a critical post on an investment blog.

The company, which has expanded across the globe with a long list of acquisitions since its 2010 float on the Alternative Investment Market, said Dobbie had bought 865,000 ordinary shares at an average price of 114.1p each.

The purchase would have cost just under £1m and means the technology entrepreneur now owns 17.6 per cent of the firm.

Dobbie, who founded Cupid in 2005 alongside business partner Max Polyakov, said: “Following such a strong set of results, my commitment to, and confidence in the Cupid business remains as strong as ever.

“The business is built on solid foundations. We have, and continue to make significant steps to achieve our objective of one million subscribers across 25 markets by 2017 and thereby doubling the size of the company.”

Last year Polyakov announced he was leaving Cupid to work on a US venture but he still holds a significant stake in the company.