Planet Fitness is seeking to make a bid for Blink Fitness after losing out last week in a bankruptcy auction to U.K.-based fitness chain PureGym.
Equinox Group-owned gym chain Blink Fitness filed for bankruptcy in August 2024 after a failed attempt by the luxury fitness group to enter the budget-friendly gym market.
On October 31, PureGym bid $121 million to win the bankruptcy auction for Blink and its assets, including 60 of its gyms in New York and New Jersey. An acquisition of Blink locations would expand PureGym’s U.S. operations after the company first entered the market in 2021.
On Friday, November 1, in the closing hour of the deal’s 48-hour challenge period, Planet Fitness, the largest gym chain in the U.S. with over 2,000 locations, submitted two larger competing bids in a filing from unsecured creditors: $141 million if no premerger regulatory filings were required and $153 million if Planet Fitness had to submit the paperwork, according to the New York Post.
Sources told CNBC that Planet Fitness’s initial bid was also higher than PureGym’s winning offer, but it was rejected in part because of concerns about antitrust considerations.
Blink Fitness’ debtors filed Monday night, November 4, in support of Pure Gym’s initial offer, arguing the sale process “culminated in the highest and best bid with a well-financed strategic buyer,” a source close to the process told the New York Post.
Image courtesy Blink Fitness
