Virgin Active is buying Holmes Place Germany for €135 million in cash, a deal that makes it Germany's leading premium gym operator. The business has 13 large clubs across six cities, including Berlin, Hamburg and Düsseldorf, with about 84,100 members. That's a foothold in Europe's largest fitness market, which has 12.4 million members. Its premium segment is forecast to grow by 9.3% a year to 2028, and the market is still fragmented and underpenetrated compared with the rest of Europe. The deal is unconditional and is expected to complete by mid-December.
Why buy instead of build
Rather than spending years building new clubs, Virgin Active is buying a business that is already profitable. Holmes Place Germany is forecast to make €70.2 million in revenue and €21.5 million in EBITDA, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, this year, with EBITDA up 27%. Virgin Active says the price is considerably less than it would cost to build an equivalent set of clubs, and buying lets it skip the start-up losses of opening a new network. It's paying from its existing cash, which takes its net debt to 2.9 times EBITDA, and the clubs will need some spending to rebrand them as Virgin Active.
Less reliant on home
Once the deal is complete, 56% of Virgin Active's earnings will come from outside South Africa, with South Africa contributing the other 44%. The company says that continues its strategy of growing in markets where it has the scale to succeed. At home, Southern African revenue grew 6% in the year to March, mostly thanks to higher membership prices and sales at higher-end clubs. But membership cancellations stayed high, partly because of club closures for refurbishment and affordability pressures on consumers. The region has 623,000 active members and makes up 35% of group revenue.
Brait, the investment company that owns a stake in Virgin Active alongside food producer Premier and UK retailer New Look, will share more detail at its interim results this morning. Brait has already reported a 37% rise in Virgin Active's EBITDA to £110 million for the 12 months to December 2025, with earnings growing everywhere except Australia. Christo Wiese, whose investment firm Titan owns 42% of Brait, has said they are "very excited" about the deal. For South African members, the bigger takeaway is that their gym's next stage of growth is increasingly happening overseas.
