DENVER (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — AEG head honcho Philip Anschutz is reportedly getting into the fitness business, as his investment company, Anschutz Investment Co., stands to get a significant stake in Bally Total Fitness.
The company, one of the nation’s biggest operators of fitness centers, will file for bankruptcy and hand itself over to bondholders and canceling its stock.
Anschutz is one of the head bondholders, according to a press release from Bally, along with Goldman Sachs and Tennenbaum Capital Partners. The release did not specify what percentages of the company the investors will get.
This isn’t Anschutz’s first foray into equity ownership via the bond market, according to the Rocky Mountain News, as his company used the same technique to acquire three underperforming movie-theater chains and roll them into Regal Entertainment Group.
Bally hasn’t turned a profit since 2001, and warned in March that it would consider bankruptcy because of a $827 million debt. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
