South Africa's Brait takes 80% stake in Richard Branson's Virgin Active

LONDON (ShareCast) - Johannesbourg-listed Brait is to take a controlling interest in Virgin Active, the chain of gyms part-owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group empire, in a deal that gives the business an enterprise value of £1.3bn. Brait, majority-owned by South African retail tycoon Christo Wiese, is buying an 80% stake in the business for £682m, purchasing CVC Capital Partners' entire 29% interest and 51% from Virgin, leaving the latter with the remaining 20% holding.

The gym chain, which has over 1.3m members across 267 clubs in nine countries, has an equity value of £870m.

Some 114 Virgin Active clubs are located in South Africa, where the chain is the "clear number one", Virgin said in a statement. It also holds the top position by revenue in the health club markets of the UK and Italy, and also has clubs in Iberia, Australia, Singapore and Thailand.

"While today's transaction is testament to the huge amount the business has already achieved, we believe that its future is more exciting," Branson said.

"We are delighted that we will continue to play a part in this alongside Brait, another long-term investor with a strong track record in growing businesses, and would like to thank CVC (Taiwan OTC: 4744.TWO - news) for their support of the business during their period of ownership." Brait, South African's largest private-equity company which also holds an 18.7% stake in UK food retailer Iceland , said Virgin Active has "exciting growth prospects in both emerging and development markets".