Planet Fitness has made a last-minute bid to acquire the bankrupt gym chain Blink just days after the U.K.-based chain PureGym announced it had agreed to purchase most of the company’s assets — including more than 60 locations in New York and New Jersey — for $121 million.
Blink, an Equinox-owned budget-friendly gym chain, filed for bankruptcy earlier this year with about $280 million in debt.
Last week, the company’s president and CEO Guy Harkless, announced that PureGym had been selected “as a winning bidder in our sale process.”
The acquisition would expand the presence of PureGym in the U.S., “a market we have been operating in since 2021,” Humphrey Cobbold, PureGym’s CEO, said in a statement late last week.
Planet Fitness, whose initial bid to acquire Blink was rejected in part because of antitrust concerns, is now making a second attempt at it, CNBC reported.
The low-cost gym giant has made two offers to complete the deal: one for $142 million that wouldn’t require Planet Fitness to address antitrust concerns in advance, and another for $155 million, which would require filings to address antitrust concerns.
A committee of unsecured creditors raised objections to the sale of Blink to PureGym, according to Axios.
But on Monday, Blink Fitness’ debtors expressed support for the sale, saying in a filing that the “process has culminated in the highest and best bid with a well-financed strategic buyer.”
A bankruptcy in Delaware court will hold a hearing Wednesday to consider the new bids.
