Expanding Latin American gym chain SmartFit files for IPO
8:52 am Thursday, May 20th, 2021
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Latin American gym chain SmartFit has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) to raise funds for its expansion, a Brazilian securities filing showed.
The planned IPO move comes as many fitness chains have been forced to close gyms during coronavirus lockdowns.
SmartFit has used the period to embark on acquisitions and increase its footprint in Latin America, where it has 928 gyms in 13 countries and 2.4 million clients.
An IPO filing on Wednesday by SmartFit, which has private equity firm Patria Investiments, Canada’s CPP Investments and Singapore’s GIC among its investors, did not mention its planned valuation.
GIC, CPP and asset management firm Dynamo have agreed to invest up to 750 million reais ($141 million) in the IPO, if SmartFit raises at least 1.75 billion reais in the offering and prices its shares at up to 420 reais each.
SmartFit posted net revenues of 1.26 billion reais in 2020, down 37% from the previous year. Its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization fell to 53.8 million reais in 2020, from 551.3 million reais in 2019.
Itau BBA, Morgan Stanley and Santander Brasil are managing the IPO, the filing showed.
($1 = 5.3098 reais)
(Reporting by Carolina Mandl; Editing by Alexander Smith)
