Pure Gym in £80m battle with Mike Ashley for fitness firm
PURE GYM is up against Sports Direct’s Mike Ashley to buy LA Fitness, which last year appointed advisors in an attempt to sell the business.
Leeds-based Pure Gym, which is backed by US private equity firm CCMP, is in advanced talks to buy the Doncaster-based chain according to The Sunday Times.
However Mr Ashley and Fitness First, which is backed by American investment firm Oaktree, are also competing for the £80m deal.
LA Fitness appointed Canaccord Genuity last year in an attempt to offload its remaining sites, 33 of which were sold to Mr Ashley in November, who has launched Sports Direct Fitness.
LA Fitness still has 43 sites, although only seven are outside the south of England. By contrast, Pure Gym has just 25 of its 92 gyms in the south, and is particularly strong in the North West and West Midlands.
Pure Gym’s offer comes after a failed merger with the Gym Group last year, which collapsed after the Competition and Markets Authority investigated the deal.
The gym operator announced its final results this morning. Underlying profits rose to £22.6m last year, compared with £14.3m in 2013.
Revenues increased almost 50% to £68.6m, and members grew to 420,000.
Peter Roberts, Pure Gym’s executive chairman, said: “In 2014 we delivered impressive financial performance whilst managing significant expansion.
“In just five years Pure Gym has established itself as the leading gym operator in the UK and made gym membership a reality for hundreds of thousands of people.
“We have further exciting expansion plans for 2015 and look forward to another year of growth.”
