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UK
Deal Maker of the Year Awards 2013
WINNER - PETER ROBERTS DEAL: CCMP Capital Advisors LLC acquires Pure Gym Ltd
NAME: Peter Roberts COMPANY: Pure Gym Ltd POSITION: Chief Executive TEL: 01765 658911 EMAIL: Peter@puregym.com
BIO
Peter Roberts was trained as a chartered surveyor and was senior partner of his own practice for 10 years before joining the leisure industry in 1980. He then formed the highly successful Langdale Group PLC, which was sold to Scottish and Newcastle in 1989.
Following this, he co-founded the Nightclub operator Luminar Leisure, and was involved with the company until it went public in 1995. Simultaneously, he developed Countrystyle Inns which was also sold on in the same year. Both were sold for significant multiples of the original investment. During this time, Peter was also involved in starting a new leisure venture capital fund with Lazards, which ran for 8 years.
Subsequently, Peter moved on to hotel development and management. After running 3 hotels for private investors, he formed Golden Tulip UK which developed 15 new mid-market style hotels with a private equity partner and was successfully sold to Whitbread in 2008.
Peter then developed a new brand of specialist budget gyms through a company called Pure Gym in 2009. The company now has 60 gyms in operation and is rapidly establishing itself as the market leader in the fast expanding budget gym sector.
DEAL OVERVIEW Q
Please summarise the transaction
The sale of Pure Gym involved preparation of particulars of the company and its financial highlights, and started in September 2012.
The sale process was coordinated through Canaccord Genuity, and involved making contact with 30 Private Equity Houses, and presenting to those who were interested, with a view to getting to a shortlist.
Discussions with both senior and mezzanine debt providers after preparation of final business plans and then negotiation with the short list of Equity
to managing a rapidly expanding business and we did in fact negotiate for and open 14 new gyms in this period.
The gym sector has gained a poor reputation from investors as a result of some well known financial problems amongst leading gym operators. Thus we had to spend a considerable amount of time and effort educating potential investors and bankers as to why the budget gym sector was different and deserved financial backing.
Q
How does the transaction fit in with your overall business strategy?
The purpose of the sale was to give the original private shareholders an exit after 4 years of investment and for the company to receive the appropriate investment to be able to continue its rapid rollout of gyms. I am pleased to say we achieved both of these very satisfactorily!
Q
Houses before finalising a deal with CCMP in May 2013.
Q
What was you role within the transaction?
As CEO of Pure Gym I headed up the management team in the presentations and negotiations, with the Equity Houses.
Q difficulties presented? What were the challenges or
As the whole process took almost 9 months, it took up a great deal of management time, in addition
What are your plans following the transaction?
As a result we now have £50m of expansion funding and this allows us to continue to expand at the rate of 30+ gyms per year and look at the possibility of overseas expansion as well.
Q
What are your thoughts and predictions within your sector for 2014 and beyond?
The low cost sector will continue to expand rapidly and become an increasingly important player in the overall gym market. There is however increasing competition with 30 new entrants over the last 2 years and this will inevitably lead to consolidation and only the strongest players will still be around in 5 years!!!