Market love: Cupid shares bounce on buy-back plan

By TERRY MURDEN
Published on 30/11/2012 08:04

Internet dating company Cupid is to buy back up to 10 per cent of its shares in order to improve returns to investors.

The announcement from the Edinburgh-based firm led to a bounce in the shares from a two-month fall. A general meeting will be held on 19 December to seek shareholder approval. The shares bought will either be cancelled or held in treasury.

The company’s shares were floated at 60p on the Alternative Investment Market in June 2010 and they leapt above 230p towards the end of last year.

But they have traded around and below 200p for much of this year as investors took fright following the decision of co-founders Bill Dobbie and Max Polyakov to offload large stakes before Polyakov quit to launch another business in the US.

In a trading update last week the company said its financial performance was a year ahead of schedule. The board expects to end the year with a robust, bank debt free balance sheet and more than £11m of cash.