Fitness First slimming exercise goes on with digital app sale

The slimming down of what was once the world's largest gym group is continuing with the multimillion pound sale of CustomFit, a digital training system.

Sky News understands that Fitness First, which has been going through a winding-down exercise for well over a year, has agreed to sell the app to Wexer, a company specialising in virtual fitness services.

The disposal by Fitness First's parent company, Moray Holdings, is the latest in a string of asset sales which have included gym chains in the UK and Australia.

The proceeds from those transactions enabled Fitness First to repay its banking facility at the end of last year, meaning that further disposal proceeds will be payable to the company's shareholders after the funding of its ongoing operations is accounted for.

Following the sale of its Australian operations towards the end of 2016, Fitness First operated 180 clubs with nearly 500,000 members in countries such as Germany and Hong Kong.

The dismantling of the company's global empire follows a painful financial overhaul since it was acquired by Oaktree Capital Management and Marathon, two hedge funds, in 2012.

It shed dozens of struggling UK clubs through a mechanism known as a company voluntary arrangement in 2013, although it said in accounts filed recently that earnings growth in its home market had improved significantly in the period leading up to the sale.

An Oaktree spokeswoman declined to comment.