Investment firm Brait to buy 80% of fitness chain Virgin Active for some $1bn

Investment firm Brait has offered to pay £682m ($1bn, €951m) for an 80% stake in British fitness chain Virgin Active.

Brait is majority owned by South African billionaire Christo Wiese. Virgin Active is jointly owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and London-based buyout firm CVC Capital Partners.

The deal values Virgin Active at £1.3bn and the Virgin Group will retain a 20% stake in the business, according to Malta-based Brait.

Brait will fund the deal with cash on hand, reports said.

Virgin Active, which opened its first club in Preston, UK in 1991, operates 267 clubs in nine countries and has some 1.4 million members, according to its website.

Brait's shares are listed on the MTF Market of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and also on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

Brait's stock was trading 0.24% lower at 9.56am in Johannesburg, valuing the firm at ZAR $44.68bn.

Brait said in a statement: "Virgin Active has demonstrated double-digit compound annual growth rate in revenue and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization."

It also has "an experienced, aligned and proven management team."