3i-backed Basic Fit set to float with €1 billion valuation

London-based private equity giant 3i is set to cash in on Basic-Fit as the Dutch gyms business limbers up for its €1 billion float tomorrow.

Basic-Fit, which has 351 low-cost gyms in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Spain, is raising up to €460 million in the listing on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.

The shares have been priced between €15 and €20, valuing Basic-Fit at between €820 million and €970 million.

3i, the FTSE 100 firm which also owns Agent Provocateur and Hobbs, owns around half of the fitness chain. In 2013, it invested €110 million in the firm in a deal valuing it at €275 million.

Chief executive and co-founder René Moos has a 43% stake shared with his family and his co-founders. The company said Moos will remain a significant long-term shareholder.

Orders for the shares close today with trading expected to begin tomorrow.

Moos said last week: “Having completed all preparations, we are now ready to become a listed company. The level of interest we have seen in the investment community is very encouraging.”

Basic-Fit, which has more than a million members, generated €202 million in revenues last year with underlying earnings (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of €60 million. Based on the top end of the range, the float values Basic-Fit at around 15 times earnings.

The company is using the proceeds of the float to pay down debts, which totalled €282 million at the end of March, and to repay shareholder loans.

It hopes to open 65 to 75 new clubs this year and “a similar number per year over the medium-term”.

A surge in the popularity of gyms prompted the Gym Group to float in London last year. Pure Gyms, the UK’s biggest chain, is also gearing up to float.

ABN Amro and Morgan Stanley are the banks running Basic-Fit’s IPO.