Cupid Investor Kestrel Increase Stake to 14.5%

Investment group Kestrel has increased its stake in Cupid, becoming the online dating company’s second biggest investor.

Kestrel Opportunities, who invest in “high quality, profitable smaller companies” they consider undervalued, have increased their holding to 14.49%.

They bought 1.4m shares this week, taking their total to 10.3m – worth around £4.6m.

The Guernsey-based group are now the second biggest investor in Cupid, behind former CEO Bill Dobbie, who has 20.61%.

Kestrel Opportunities was founded by Max Royde, former head of technology stocks at broker Peel Hunt.

This comes after investor Toscafund offloaded their entire 16% share in the Edinburgh-based dating company last month.

The hedge fund, founded by Martin Hughes, sold all their 11.2m shares, worth around £5.1m.

Cupid recently reported a 2013 loss of £7.9m, compared with a profit of £9.2m in 2012.

In a recent interview with The Scotsman, CEO Phil Gripton said:

“We have to change from being a dating only business to being a scaleable technology play. 

“The dating business is in turnaround but we have a unique opportunity in having a lot of data we can use.”