PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Barrack, Rodos & Bacine (BR&B) reminds shareholders that it is continuing its investigation of F45 Training Holdings Inc. (“F45”) (NYSE: FXLV) for potential violations of federal securities laws.
F45 Training Holdings Inc., a Mark Wahlberg-backed fitness franchisor based in Texas, went public in July 2021, when it sold 18.75 million shares priced at $16 per share. The company reported results and issued guidance that was generally expected by the market for about a year after the IPO.
However, on July 26, 2022, just a year after the IPO, F45 issued a press release in which it disclosed: (1) a reduction in its financial guidance, from a range of $255 to $275 million to a new range of $120 to $130 million; (2) for the year it would open about 60% fewer exercise studios than promised just two months earlier (or 350 to 450 of them, versus 1,000); (3) a $250 million credit line "will not be available"; (4) the company was letting go of about 110 employees; and (5) the CEO, Adam Gilchrist, had resigned the previous month. The announcement was made after Wahlberg had sold significant amounts of his own stock in the company. CEO Gilchrist received payments valued at over ten million dollars on his departure.
The disclosures in the press release sent the price of F45 shares down over 60% on July 27, 2022.
Furthermore, Mark Wahlberg sold over a million shares of F45 earlier this year, and the Company’s co-founder and former CEO, Adam Gilchrist, has now reportedly “disappeared,” after he left the company on a $10 million golden handshake and sold his $14 million home on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
On October 18th, celebrity athletes David Beckham and Greg Norman filed a lawsuit in which they allege they were promised annual payments, as well as stock, in exchange for appearing in advertisements and promotional events. Beckham claims to have lost almost $10 million as F45’s share price tumbled. The lawsuit further alleges that ‘insiders and directors’ were given ‘preferential treatment,’ allowing them to increase their profits.
On November 16th, F45’s CFO, Chris Payne, sold 370,000 shares. About a week later, the company announced that Payne had resigned the day before he sold his shares. F45’s share price fell another 11% as the market reacted to this news.
If you are an F45 shareholder and have suffered losses in your investment in F45, you are encouraged to contact Mark Stein or Linda Border, at Barrack, Rodos & Bacine’s toll-free number 877-386-3304, to learn more about the firm’s investigation and your legal rights and options. They can also be reached via email at mstein@barrack.com or lborder@barrack.com.
With offices in Philadelphia, PA, San Diego, CA, and New York City, NY, Barrack, Rodos & Bacine has more than four decades of experience prosecuting securities law class actions, including cases involving accounting fraud and insider trading, and has achieved some of the largest recoveries in the history of securities litigation in the U.S. The firm's largest recoveries on behalf of investors include $6.19 billion for WorldCom investors, $3.32 billion for Cendant investors, $1.05 billion for McKesson investors, and $970.5 million for AIG investors.
