Dating firm Cupid forms relationship overseas with French company AGL

City Editor

Wednesday 25 July 2012

ONLINE dating company Cupid has found amour on the other side of the Channel with the acquisition of French company Assistance Genie Logiciel for €3.7 million (£2.9m) from private equity fund Financiere PES.

UNION: Chief executive of Cupid, Bill Dobbie. said the buyout of AGL complemented the company's business portfolio in France.

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TIM SHARP CITY EDITOR

AGL operates brands including Amour.com, which it styles as traditional dating, SeRencontrer.com (serious dating), and Ulla.com (casual dating).

Bill Dobbie, chief executive of Edinburgh-based Cupid, said: "The AGL business is a highly complementary addition to our current French portfolio, allowing us to become one of the largest French online dating businesses.

"In addition, we see the potential to expand at least one of the French brands into other international markets". A year ago Cupid bought the French domain name cupidon.com for £175,000 and has been expanding rapidly elsewhere on the continent. AGL was bought from Financiere PES, part of investment company CityStar Capital. AGL was created in 1986 and initially delivered content across telephone lines before moving onto the web. The AGL dating business delivered revenues of €6.5m and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation in the year ended December, 31, 2011. Cupid said the impact of the acquisition on earnings would be neutral this year as the business was integrated and marketing spend increased. It is then expected to show revenue growth and add to earnings in 2013. AGL is operated by a team of 25 people based near Paris. Fiona Orford-Williams, analyst at Edison Investment Research, said: "The purchase fits well with the strategy of continuing geographic expansion in Cupid's new markets [including the US, Canada and France]." Cupid floated on AIM in June 2010 with an initial price of 60p per share and reached a high of 260p in June last year.

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Dating firm Cupid forms relationship overseas with French company AGL

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