Hoofddorp, 28 September 2020 - Following a decision by the French government, Basic-Fit closed 148 of its 445 French clubs for a duration of two weeks. The decision has been made by the French government despite the strict COVID-19 protocols applied by the fitness industry and despite research showing that fitness facilities are safe and are not contributing to the spread of COVID-19[1]. Since the reopening of our clubs in June we have had more than 22 million visits in our clubs of which 11 million in our French clubs without any outbreak of COVID-19. Basic-Fit strongly disagrees with this unfounded decision of the French government and has started a legal summary proceeding with the aim to get the clubs reopened as soon as possible.

The clubs concerned are located in the so-called Zone Alerte Renforcée and Zone Alerte Maximale departments, especially cities of Paris, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Rouen, Rennes, Saint-Etienne and Toulouse.

Basic-Fit has ample liquidity to absorb the impact of these club closures as we currently have approximately €175 million cash at hand.

We currently have 895 clubs in our network, an increase of 111 clubs year to date. 747 of our clubs are still open, of which 297 in France.

At this time Basic-Fit has no indication, but also cannot exclude, that more clubs will have to be closed or that clubs need to be closed for a longer period than two weeks. We will continue to monitor the developments in our countries closely and adjust our actions accordingly.

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