Billionaire Christo Wiese’s investment giant wants to take Virgin Active public

Brait is seeking to position one of its biggest investments, Virgin Active, for a potential listing or sale, beginning with a R2.5 billion rights offer.

This was revealed in Brait’s results for the year through March 2026, which were released on Thursday, 18 June.

Brait is an investment holding company backed by billionaire businessman and former Shoprite CEO Christo Wiese.

Some of its assets include the fitness chain Virgin Active, the food producer Premier, and the UK apparel chain New Look.

In its latest results, Brait revealed that it wants to optimise Virgin Active’s positioning either for listing or the business’s sale. Brait’s investment in Virgin Active is valued at around R9.39 billion.

It is also looking to sell its stake in New Look, with its current holding valued at R723 million.

This comes after Brait undertook a number of initiatives, starting in 2020, to reduce its net debt from R7 billion to its current level of R1.7 billion. 

The company said this has been achieved through disposals of underlying assets and the listing and monetisation of the company’s stake in Premier, which was listed in March 2023.

However, the company now wants to take this initiative further by optimising the positioning of Virgin Active for a potential listing.

For this to happen, Brait said it is preferable that the business repays some of its existing debt in order to achieve a suitable level of gearing. 

Therefore, Virgin Active will be raising £175 million (R3.80 billion) from its existing shareholders to repay its existing debt and achieve a net debt/EBITDA ratio of 2.0x. 

Brait said it would contribute £108 million to fund its pro-rata share of the Virgin Active Capital Raise. 

It explained that the Capital Raise will provide the business with the capacity to fund its club refurbishment plan and new club rollout strategy. 

“Virgin Active is in the final stages of refinancing its existing South African and International facilities, which, together with the Virgin Active Capital Raise, will result in an interest saving of £14 million (R304.20 million) per annum,” Brait said.

In addition, as part of the value unlock strategy, Brait will undertake a R2.5 billion rights offer at a price of R1.51 per share. This implies a 43% discount to the net asset value per share post the Rights Offer.

Brait and Virgin Active’s performance

At a group level, Brait reported a strong performance for the 2026 financial year, with its investment value gain up 51.05% to R1.8 billion.

Its operating expenses remained flat year-on-year, while finance costs dropped by 9.17% to R436 million.

This allowed Brait to report a profit for the year of R1.32 billion, almost double the R672 million profit it reported for the 2025 financial year.

Brait’s basic earnings per share rose by just under 48% to 34 cents per share.

Virgin Active also had a bumper year, with EBITDA growth of 37% to £110 million (R2.39 billion), and a high return on capital.

This was driven by new gym rollouts over the year and refurbishments of existing locations, with Brait reporting a well-developed pipeline of growth opportunities for this business.

“Growth forecast from new gyms and the refurbishment program will position the business well for an exit in the next two years,” it said.

Brait said Virgin Active has fully recovered from the hit it took from the Covid-19 pandemic and is now well-positioned for growth.

“Given current market conditions, the target date for a listing of Virgin Active is the second half of 2027 or the first half of 2028,” it said.

Brait previously told Bloomberg that a listing for Virgin Active is “most likely” to be in the UK, with a secondary offer in Johannesburg.