Life Time hopes to raise nearly $1 billion from new IPO

Life Time Fitness hopes to raise nearly $1 billion from an initial public offering of stock that it would use to repay long-term debts.

The Chanhassen-based health, fitness and wellness chain filed an initial registration statement for an IPO on Sept. 13, but did not disclose the number of shares it would offer or a price range for those shares.

In an amendment to that filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, Life Time Fitness says it expects to sell 46.2 million shares at from $18 to $21. An offering at the top end of the range would be the largest IPO ever by a Minnesota public company.

Life Time Fitness was founded in 1992 by Bahram Akradi. It was a publicly traded company from 2004 to 2015, when Akradi and several investment firms took the company private again.

Akradi and those investors would return the company to the public stock markets with a successful offering. After the offering, the company would still be considered a "controlled company," meaning Akradi and those investors would still own a majority of the stock.

Life Time has 153 premium fitness centers in 29 states and Canada. In 2018, the company expanded into co-working spaces, with its latest opening last week in downtown Minneapolis.

Since going private in 2015, the company has opened fitness centers and expanded its presence in Boston, Chicago, New York and other major markets, and added markets in California.

But going private also increased the company's debt. According to the registration statement, Life Time had about $2.4 billion in debt as of June 30, 2021. The company would repay about $735 million — more or less, depending on the ultimate price of the offering.

If the IPO prices at $21 a share, it would raise more money than Bloomington-based Bright Health did in its downsized IPO, which was completed June 23.

Bright Health raised $924 million by selling 51.4 million shares at $18 a share. It was the largest amount raised in an IPO by a Minnesota company. However, had shares been priced at the proposed range of $20 to $23, the health insurance company would have raised more than $1 billion.

If successful, Life Time would be the sixth Minnesota company to complete an IPO this year, joining Bright Health, Agility Health Inc., Sun Country Airlines, SkyWater Technology Inc. and Miromatrix Medical Inc.

Favorable market conditions have led to a surge of IPOs. According to Renaissance Capital, 310 companies have priced IPOs this year, up 111% from this time last year.