Gym Group (GYM) is sprinting ahead with its plans to operate 200 locations by 2020. It’s bought 13 sites from easyGym for an initial £20.6m, and will pay an additional £4.1m once lease extensions are agreed on two sites. The deal will mainly be funded by a £24m share placing, and the group will also take out an additional £10m of debt. This will bring the net debt /cash profit ratio to 1.2 times, compared with 1.34 times at the full year. Eight of the sites are in London, which will improve the group’s geographical mix.
Outside of this deal, Gym Group expects to have opened six new gyms by the end of the first half, bringing the total estate to 134 locations. Membership has increased by nearly a third to 668,000, and so far 45,000 members have signed up for the LIVE IT premium option since it launched last month.
