THE Edinburgh-based internet dating company Cupid is seeking to inject some life into its moribund share price by launching a multi-million pound buyback of its own paper.
Cupid said it is to hold a shareholder meeting on December 19 "to apply for shareholder approval for a share buyback programme of up to 10% of the issued share capital of the company".
With a market value around £150 million, this suggests Cupid could spend upwards of £15m on the exercise.
The company revealed last week it expects to end the year with £11m in cash.
Cupid said: "The aim of the programme is to reduce the issued share capital of the company to help enhance returns for shareholders.
"The shares to be purchased on behalf of the company will either be cancelled or held in treasury."
In response its shares rose 7p to 184p, a 4% gain.
Cupid, which operates websites such as Flirt.com and Benaughty.com, had a stellar start to its stock market life after listing on the Alternative Investment Market in June 2010 at 60p per share.
Within 12 months the stock had risen to 250p.
But it has since fallen back significantly, hitting a 52-week low of 165p last month as investors fretted about the sustainability of its business model.
Cupid, which was originally called Easydate, has spent its money on acquisitions, picking up dating websites in countries including France, Germany and Latin America.
It has also been active in the UK, snapping up Uniform Dating for up to £7m in September.
While its share price has faltered, Cupid's operational performance has continued to improve.
It said last month that revenue and profits for the 2012 calendar year were "substantially ahead of last year" when it recorded a 67% jump in annual pre-tax earnings to £7m.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article