Cupid's Higginson dumps shares

Martin Higginson, a non-executive director at the online dating company Cupid, has pocketed £640,000 from the sale of all his shares in the company.

He sold 261,182 shares at 245.3p a time and now has none.

The shares have risen slightly since his last big sale of shares in July, when he offloaded nearly 140,000 at 237p. But back in November, when Cupid was known as Easydate, Higginson sold 398,000 shares at just 95p a pop.

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Cupid's shares jumped in May when it reported trading ahead of expectations since early March. The company, whose websites include flirt.com and benaughty.com, enjoyed strong growth outside the UK, with more than half of revenues now coming from overseas.

Last month it reported strong results for the half year to 30 June. Revenue in the first half of 2011 was £25.4m compared to £8.8m in 2010. Pre-tax profits came in at £3.94m, up from £1.99m the previous year. The company has expanded from 3 countries last year to 12 by the end of June.

Higginson founded the interactive TV gaming company NetPlay TV. He is said by Cupid to be one of the Northwest's leading entrepreneurs.

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WSP Group (WSH) Director name: Mr Ian Barlow Amount purchased: 35,062 @ 283.50p Value: £99,401

Jelf Group (JLF) Director name: Mr Les OwenAmount purchased: 100,000 @ 60.00p Value: £60,000

Phaunos Timber Fund Ltd. (PTF) Director name: Mr Liane LukeAmount purchased: 50,000 @ $0.72 Value: $35,875

Pilat Media Global (PGB) Director name: Mr Samuel SattathAmount purchased: 100,000 @ 34.50p Value: £34,500

Trakm8 Holdings (TRAK) Director name: Mr James Killingworth HedgesAmount purchased: 180,000 @ 13.00p Value: £23,400

Trakm8 Holdings (TRAK) Director name: Mr Paul Wilson Amount purchased: 100,000 @ 13.00p Value: £13,000

Glanbia (GLB) Director name: Mr Brendan Hayes Amount purchased: 2,500 @ €4.30 Value: €10,746

Pacific Horizon Inv Trust (PHI) Director name: Ms Elisabeth ScottAmount purchased: 6,042 @ 167.00p Value: £10,090

Top Director Sells

BG Group (BG.) Director name: Mr Frank ChapmanAmount sold: 182,468 @ 1,283.33p Value: £2,341,667

BG Group (BG.) Director name: Mr Martin HoustonAmount sold: 66,684 @ 1,283.33p Value: £855,776

Cupid (CUP) Director name: Mr Martin HigginsonAmount sold: 261,182 @ 245.34p Value: £640,784

Intertek Group (ITRK) Director name: Mr Lloyd PitchfordAmount sold: 4,108 @ 2,000.00p Value: £82,160