Planet Fitness Loses Some Weight in IPO

By Chris Lange Published Aug 6, 10:45AM EDT

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Planet Fitness Inc. (NYSE: PLNT) entered the market with its initial public offering (IPO) on Thursday morning. The company set its IPO price at $16, on the high side of its expected price range of $14 to $16. The offering was for 13.5 million shares, with an overallotment option for an additional 2.025 million shares. At the price, the entire offering is valued up to $248.4 million.

The underwriters for this offering are JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Jefferies, Credit Suisse, Guggenheim, Baird, William Blair, Piper Jaffray and Cowen.

The company considers itself one of the largest and fastest-growing franchisors and operators of fitness centers in the United States by number of members and locations.

The locations are typically 20,000 square feet, with Planet Fitness-branded cardio, circuit- and weight-training equipment. The base rate is $10 per month for standard membership.

Planet Fitness has grown its revenues to $279.8 million in 2014 and at the same time had $1.2 billion in systemwide sales (which is defined as monthly dues and annual fees billed by the company and its franchisees). There are more than 7.1 million members and 976 stores in 47 states, Puerto Rico and Canada, as of March 31, 2015.

According to the filing:

System-wide sales for 2014 include $1.1 billion attributable to franchisee-owned stores, from which we generate royalty revenue, and $82.0 million attributable to our corporate-owned stores. Of our 976 stores, 919 are franchised and 57 are corporate-owned. Our stores are successful in a wide range of geographies and demographics. According to internal and third-party analysis, we believe we have the opportunity to more than quadruple our store count to over 4,000 stores in the United States alone. Under signed area development agreements (“ADAs”) as of March 31, 2015, our franchisees have committed to open more than 1,000 additional stores.

The company plans to use the net proceeds from the offering to purchase issued and outstanding holding units from investment funds affiliated with TSG Funds.

Shares of Planet Fitness were down 7.5% at $14.80 on Thursday. As of 10:45 a.m. Eastern, the range on the day was $13.75 to $15.30. At the same time, 9.1 million shares had moved so far on the day.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.