Break-ups are rarely easy, and online dating specialist Cupid (CUP) has been mired in an especially messy one. Hoping to become more wholesome and improve the stickiness of revenues, it last year dumped its casual dating sites such as Flirt.com, which previously drove 70 per cent of its revenue and even more of its profit. Although the sale will net Cupid £26m over the next three years, it precipitated an operating loss of £8m - from a £9.2m profit in 2012.
Cupid has work to do to win back investors - its shares plunged 12 per cent following the results. Even stripping out the impact of business disposals, it saw a 39 per cent year-on-year decline in paying subscriber numbers to 69,000. New user registrations, meanwhile, slumped by almost a half, reflecting a lot of negative press following allegations of wrongdoing, as well as efforts by Cupid to step up its verification processes to combat scammers.
This will be a "pivotal year" for Cupid, says new chief executive Phil Gripton. He plans to re-launch Cupid's core websites this year and introduce LoveBeginsAt.com, a dating website for the over-45s. He also wants to leverage the company's vast data pool, both to tailor its own marketing and, anonymised, for sale to third parties.
| CUPID (CUP) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 62p | MARKET VALUE: | £44m | |
| TOUCH: | 61-62p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 94p | LOW: 47p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 4.9% | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 46p | NET CASH: | £12.6m | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009* | 8.5 | 1.0 | na | na |
| 2010 | 25.7 | 4.2 | 4.7 | 1.32 |
| 2011 | 53.6 | 7.1 | 7.1 | 2.25 |
| 2012 | 26.7 | -0.9 | -1.4 | 3.00 |
| 2013 | 26.6 | -7.4 | -7.2 | 3.00 |
| % change | - | - | - | - |
Ex-div: 4 Jun Payment: 4 Jul *Pro forma figures | ||||
