F45 Training, a fitness franchise backed by actor Mark Wahlberg that earlier this year moved its headquarters to Austin, plans to raise up to $345 million in an initial public offering, according to a security filing posted July 7.
The company — which was founded in Australia, later moved to the Los Angeles area and in recent months has listed the Texas capital as its HQ — plans to sell 20.3 million shares at $15 to $17 each. That would give the company a valuation of roughly $1.5 billion. The company plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange with the "FXLV" ticker. It's unclear when it will begin trading.
The new filing comes a couple weeks after F45 made its preliminary moves toward an IPO. The push toward public markets also comes as the company rebounds from months of limited activity due to the Covid-19 pandemic and as millions of people look to get back in shape after about a year of relative isolation.
F45 reported in a June 21 security filing that it has sold 2,247 franchise agreements across 63 countries.
The IPO follows more than a year of speculation that the company would go public, but conversations of a special acquisition move died out when F45, like other gyms and fitness businesses, had to close down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. F45 now says 86% of its studios have re-opened as vaccinations have increased and Covid cases have fallen in the U.S. The company said its revenue fell from $92.7 million in 2019 to $82.3 million in 2020.
F45 is currently setting up a 44,000-square-foot headquarters at Penn Field in South Austin, according to past Austin Business Journal reporting, with a lease that runs through 2029. The growing fitness company was also among the early adopters for Austin-based AnthemIQ, an Austin-based real estate-technology platform that helps tenants find commercial real estate.
In addition to Austin, F45 also has offices in Australia and England. The company reported having 84 U.S. employees at the end of March. It also has 32 employees in Australia and six in the United Kingdom.
Adam Gilchrist co-founded F45 in Australia in 2013. It focuses on one-on-one training and a standardized 45 minute workout, which it fuels with workout content on in-studio displays. The company operates mostly on a franchising model, which it says creates a relatively low initial investment and operating expenses. Its studios require as little as 1,600 square feet of training area.
Wahlberg holds nearly 1.4 million shares of the company's stock — or about 4.6% of the company. He's also partially in control of another 46% via MWIG LLC, a special fund led by FOD Capital LLC and Wahlberg. It invested $100 million in F45 Training Holdings in exchange for 10 million shares of convertible preferred stock, according to the company's initial filing.
