Serge Crasnianski, the Frenchman who turned the Photo-Me photo-booth business into a hot internet stock, yesterday banked more than £28m by selling less than one tenth of his stake in the company.

The Photo-Me chief executive sold 7m shares, equal to a 1.9% slice of the firm. A Photo-Me spokesman said he was using the cash to move house. "He has just moved from France to the UK and there are significant costs involved."

Mr Crasnasiaski, who trained as a nuclear physicist and has patented more than 100 inventions, moved in at Photo-Me after the British company bought out his Grenoble-based KIS group, a firm which had started life in the key-cutting business but evolved into digital technology for photo booths.

His masterstroke came with a deal to convert booths into multimedia service centres - offering internet and email facilities. The machines were developed with BT. Photo-Me shares rose from 68p to 470p last year, adding £250m to the value of Mr Crasnianski's 75m shares.

The first 10 new machines, called PhotoPlanet, will be unveiled in London next month.

Mr Crasnianski's move to cash in some of his shares came as Photo-Me unveiled half-year profits up 35.1% to £20.5m. The dividend was hoisted 13.6% to 0.5p and the shares dipped 4p to 401p.