The only listed health club company left in Britain, LA Fitness, has agreed a £140m takeover by private equity group MidOcean.
The offer of 220p per share values the company at £90.3m and represents a premium of 14.9 per cent to the closing price of 191.5 pence per share on 5 May, the day prior to the announcement. The deal also includes the assumption of £48.3m in debt.
The buyout team includes chief executive and founder, Fred Turok, and finance director, Richard Taylor.
As part of the deal, both will reinvest in LA Fitness, to the tune of £7.1m and £165,000 respectively.
Other members of the fitness club chain’s existing management team will also have the opportunity to keep a stake in the business.
LA Fitness chair, Peter Jacobs, said the offer was “fair and reasonable” and provided shareholders with the certainty of a cash premium “against the backdrop of a challenging trading environment”.
The company began reviewing its options last autumn when it announced the belief that LA Fitness would have a ’significant’ role to play in the likely consolidation of the UK health and fitness sector over the next few years. As well as the possibility of a sale, other options considered included mergers with, or acquisitions of, other operators.
It subsequently announced it was in talks with MidOcean in April, at the same time reporting that results for the first three months of the year were likely to be below the board’s expectations.
MidOcean’s portfolio also includes the US-based Jenny Craig weight management company and it has previously owned both The Tussauds Group and Center Parcs in the UK.
