On Friday, Sydney-born fitness empire F45 was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, complete with an outdoor DJ set by Steve Aoki on Wall Street. Concluding its first day of trading with a market cap nearing $2 billion, over the course of a few hours, F45 founder Adam Gilchrist saw his net worth increase by more than $500 million.
No, this isn’t the Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist, but a Sydneysider who shares the same name. Gilchrist co-founded F45 alongside Rob Deutsch out of a Paddington gym back in 2012. Since then, it has become a global behemoth with 2,800 franchises in 63 countries.
In a single day Gilchrist catapulted himself onto the AFR Rich List, which has a cut-off of $590 million and ranks the 200 wealthiest Australians. Currently, the list is topped by mining magnate Gina Rinehart, who retains a personal wealth of over $30 billion. Prior to the gym franchise’s debut on the NYSE, pre-IPO filings indicated Gilchrist and his co-founder both earned US$45 million when Mark Wahlberg’s investment vehicle bought into F45 circa 2019. Adam Gilchrist now has an estimated net worth exceeding $600 million, according to the AFR.
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Many attribute a great deal of F45’s global success to the presence of Hollywood star power. The Mark Wahlberg Investment Group (MWIG) purchased a 36% stake in the business and led an investment round that previously valued the company at $634 million. That figure has now, of course, been tripled.
“The energy is absolutely incredible,” Wahlberg told CNBC when asked about his enthusiasm for F45.
“Die-hard fitness enthusiasts who don’t have the schedule, got to do it in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning, don’t want to get on a bike. That’s fine. But eventually, that becomes stagnant and boring.”
The listing was led by JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, with the shares trading under the ticker code: FXLV ticker. The four letters were chosen to signify the “F” in F45, along with XLV, which is the Roman numeral for 45.
