The board of health and fitness operator, Cannons, has stepped up its plans to take the company private in a management buyout. The board yesterday urged shareholders to accept a 155p per share offer after two months of negotiations, led by chief executive Harm Tegelaars and backed by the Royal Bank of Scotland's private equity unit, RBPE. The share offer values Cannons at £260m, some 36 per cent above the share price at which Cannons was trading when the strategic review was announced in December. With the inclusion of the company debt at £100m, Cannons will be valued at £360m. Cannons chair, Nicholas Irens, who announced that he was leaving the company, backs the MBO: Following our strategic review of the alternatives available to Cannons to deliver shareholder value, the Independent Directors have considered RBPE's offer , and believe it should be recommended to shareholders. The MBO group, under the name of Health Club Acquisitions and including Cannons' managing director, Martin Oliver, plans to invest more than £150m of the backing from RBPE in expanding the company's portfolio in the UK and Europe. Cannons currently has 40 clubs in Britain, two in Holland, and eight more clubs scheduled to open this year.