Pure Gym looking to capitalise on post-lockdown trading
Pure Gym, the largest gym chain in the UK, is expecting a valuation of £1.5bn as it looks set to be the first of a number of IPOs in the coming weeks.
The gym operator is looking to capitalise on a post-lockdown surge in trading, as the value of public firms goes up.
Having been taken over in 2016 for £600m by Leonard Green, the US private equity firm, Pure Gym has grown both organically and via acquisition.
PureGym has all but regained all of its membership levels from before the pandemic, while the total number of people who visited in June were at 91% of the level seen during the same month two years ago.
Pure Gym is receiving advice from Morgan Stanley and Barclays, according to The Times, with RBC, Jefferies and Berenberg as bookrunners.
In an update given in July, Pure Gym said that it was “in the early stages of considering options for potentially raising equity, including in the public markets”.
Pure Gym’s equity value of £1.5bn is expected to put the firm in the FTSE 250.