Health clubs are feeling the burn

The club's independent shareholders unanimously agreed to the cash bid, which is backed by venture capital firm Cinven.

The offer is worth 175p a share, the company said, a 46% premium to the closing price on 19 November, the day before it first revealed a takeover approach.

The takeover bid, led by Chief Executive Mike Balfour, was also at a 9% premium to Wednesday's close.

Fitness First shares jumped 12.5p to close at 172.5p on Thursday.

Struggling

Fitness First operates 311 clubs around the world, with 720,000 members.

In January it reported profits of �24.1m on sales of �224.2m.

The UK's health clubs have been struggling for months.

A combination of market saturation and a downturn in consumer spending has led to a flurry of takeover activity.

Upmarket chain Esporta succumbed to a hostile bid from private equity firm Duke Street Capital in July.

Holmes Place is also in talks to leave the stock market, according to industry sources.

Falling revenue

Fitness First shares have plunged from a high of 735p in March 2000 to as low as 80p last October.

Problems ranging from bacteria in spa baths to slack cost controls had put back profit growth by about a year.

The firm said on Thursday that its new financial year had started well, but revenues for February and March had fallen below expectations.

Like-for-like revenues at its 69 mature clubs in the UK were down 3.1% in the three months to the end of March.