Banking Update

RNS Number : 9849I
Gym Group PLC (The)
17 December 2020
 

17 December 2020

The Gym Group plc

Banking Update

Revised Bank Facility

The Gym Group plc ("the Company"), the nationwide operator of 183 low cost gyms, announces today it has signed an amendment ("the Amendment") to the £30 million extension to its banking facilities, put in place with HSBC, Natwest and Banco de Sabadell in June 2020 as part of the Company's COVID-19 contingency planning (the "Extended Bank Facility"). This Extended Bank Facility forms part of a Revolving Credit Facility ("RCF") totalling £100m of facilities provided by the three banks.

Under the Amendment, the term of the Extended Bank Facility will be extended by six months from December 2021 to June 2022 at which point the terms of the original £70 million RCF will apply until its termination in October 2023.  The EBITDA covenant tests of the Extended Bank Facility have been amended to take into account the impact of the recent second national lockdown period in which most of the Company's gyms were closed. The new covenant tests also provide a degree of flexibility for further potential closures not yet envisaged.

Re-opening of gyms

As of 12 December 2020, the Company has all of its gyms open. On 2 December, all gyms in England were re-opened, following a 4-week national lockdown, including our sites in Tier-3 locations. In Scotland, nine of the Company's 13 gyms were closed for three weeks as a result of local restrictions but these gyms re-opened on 12 December. All three gyms in Wales are currently open.

As part of the acquisition of 13 sites from easyGym in 2018, the Company acquired two sites that had limited remaining terms on their leases: London Oxford Street and Birmingham Kings Heath. The Company has now agreed new leases on both sites and will be paying the previously agreed contingent consideration in instalments up to the end of 2021. Following a major refurbishment, the London Oxford Street gym re-opened on 2 December.

Launch of the Gym Group's Kickstart Programme

In December the Company welcomed the first 30 recruits onto its Kickstart programme; a scheme supported by the UK Government to encourage 16-24 year-olds into new employment opportunities and training. The new trainees will be working and learning in gyms alongside gym managers and at the same time studying for their personal training qualifications with a view to becoming Fitness Trainers in the Company in due course.

 

Notification of Trading Update

The Company will be issuing a pre-close trading update on 15 January 2021.

 

Richard Darwin, CEO of The Gym Group, commented:

" We are pleased to be welcoming members back to our gyms again.  The Government's decision to keep gyms open in all tiers shows the important role the sector has in fighting Covid-19 and keeping the nation active.  With the extension on our bank facilities secured and good levels of liquidity, The Gym Group is well placed to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis in a strong position."

 

 

 

For further information, please contact:

The Gym Group:

Richard Darwin, CEO

Mark George, CFO

 

via Instinctif

Instinctif Partners:

Matthew Smallwood, Justine Warren

 

0207 457 2005/10

Numis:

Luke Bordewich, George Price

 

0207 260 1366

Peel Hunt:

Dan Webster, George Sellar

 

0207 418 8900

 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy Policy.
 
END
 
 
UPDFFSSMWESSEIE
UK 100

Latest directors dealings