OTCBB ALERTS

[The Rainmaker]

Anyone else in on BFTH (Bally's) .87 (+.18)
All or nothing play with Ballys Total Fitness.
Either they get bought out for $1.50 per share plus or they file BK and shareholders get zip. Rare pink sheets have a company with 800 million dollars in debt that someone might actually want to buy.


NO DUMBBELLS
PRIVATE-EQUITY FIRMS WEIGHING BID FOR BALLY
By ZACHERY KOUWE
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
PrintEmailDigg ItStory Bottom

June 4, 2007 -- Potential buyers, including private-equity firms, are starting to circle Bally Total Fitness, even though the feeble company is heading into bankruptcy court in about two months, according to people familiar with the company.

While no formal buyout proposals have been made to Bally's board of directors, sources said private-equity firms, including J.H. Whitney & Co. and Texas Pacific Group, have reached out to investment bankers and others to explore a possible buyout or restructuring of the nation's largest health club chain before it goes into bankruptcy.

TPG and other deep-pocketed firms, including Leonard Green & Partners and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., have all reviewed a takeover of Bally in the last two years.

Other fitness companies, including Virgin Active, a division of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, also expressed interest in Bally last year when it was put up for sale. Virgin never formally made a bid, sources said.

At the time, Bally's stock was trading at around $6 a share and the company's shareholders were hoping to get at least $8.

On Friday, Bally's shares plunged 61 percent to 31 cents a share after the company announced late Thursday that it had reached an agreement with its bondholders to restructure the company in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Sources familiar with the possible buyers said the company could fetch $1.50 a share, or roughly $1 billion including debt.

A buyer would have to assume at least $800 million in existing debt and take on a company that has been steadily losing members and has declining cash flow.

If a buyer fails to emerge in the next 60 days, Bally's common stock will be wiped out and the owners of the company's subordinated debt will become the new owners.

Bally's two largest shareholders, which own over 25 percent of the company's common stock, believe they are getting shafted by the bondholders and are planning to sue the company's board if the bankruptcy plan goes through, sources said.

The two shareholders, Pardus Capital and Liberation Investment Group, waged a nasty proxy fight last year and ousted Bally chief Paul Toback.

Now, both firms find themselves fighting for every penny they can salvage from their investment.

Pardus signed a confidentiality agreement with Bally last week, giving the firm access to sensitive financial and strategic information that could be valuable to a buyer.

Bally's junk bonds have been trading at around 97 cents on the dollar, indicating that investors either believe the health club operator is a valuable asset or they know something about a possible buyer for the company, according to Kim Noland, a bond analyst with Gimme Credit.

Bally's largest bondholders include Goldman Sachs, Tennenbaum Capital Partners and the investment company run by Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06042007/business/no_dumbbells_business_zachery_kouwe.htm