24 Hour Fitness Worldwide, Inc. and Equinox Holdings Inc. are pursuing out-of-the-box ways to raise cash from investors, as the gym franchises manage through a prolonged downturn catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. After burning through much of its cash this year, 24 Hour Fitness in October agreed to borrow up to $70 million in a transaction that will help the company fund its operations into next year. The company didn’t project that it would need additional capital when it exited bankruptcy late last year, according to court filings. Privately owned Equinox is also low on cash to fund operations, with $39 million on its balance sheet as of June 30 and cash burn from its operations averaging $46 million a quarter during the first half of this year, according to a quarterly earnings report. It also made less from membership fees in the first six months of 2021 than in the same period in 2020, despite the reopening of a majority of its clubs, the report showed.
