Health club chain Esporta has completed a refinancing of its debt facilities, releasing £120m cash in order to fund the rollout of new sites through both acquisition and organic growth.

The chain is also expected to table a bid for rival operator Next Generation which could be worth around £150m.

Last summer Esporta disposed of its loss-making European operations to focus on premium health clubs in the UK.

A new racquets club is due to open in Norwich in May and sites have been secured in Worcester, Havant, Gloucester and Basingstoke with construction due to begin between now and mid-2007.

The company expects to open at least two clubs per year for the foreseeable future.

In it’s 2005 annual results released on 13 February, Esporta revealed like for like sales growth of 3.6 per cent, pre-tax profits up 10 per cent to £38.3m and member retention improvement of 2.5 per cent.

Esporta’s CEO, Neil Gillis, said: “In 2005 we delivered market leading like-for-like growth in the premium health club sector.

“We have a very clear and single-minded strategy to focus on the UK premium health club market and to grow our share. The addition of an aggressive rollout programme to supplement our organic growth will enable us to consolidate and extend our leading position.

"The outlook for the current year is good and trading in the current financial year has started well. We have the financial firepower, the assets and the management to make further substantial progress in the year ahead." Details: www.esporta.com