UK fitness group could fetch £160m, says reports

UK gym operator LA Fitness has been sounding out buyers and could fetch up to £160m (€230m), it was reported today.

The London-based group is thought to have approached many of the private equity firms that own its major rivals.

Any sale would bring a multi-million pound windfall for chief executive Fred Turok, who founded the company in 1990 when he bought a gym in Victoria, central London.

A decade of rapid expansion has seen the LA Fitness empire take control of 67 clubs and investors were offered a slice of the company when the company floated in 1999.