At Its Peak, Mark Wahlberg's Stake In F45 Was Worth A Fortune. Then The Stock Dropped 99%…

8 months ago 87

The term "renaissance man" describes someone who has many talents and success. Mark Wahlberg is absolutely a true renaissance man. He's an actor. A producer. A scratch golfer. A burger chain entrepreneur. A guy who wants you to say hello to your mother for him. Oh. And he literally co-starred in the 1994 Danny Devito movie "Renaissance Man."

Put it all together and Mark Wahlberg has a net worth approaching $400 million, by our count.

Mark is also an investor in a chain of fitness franchises called F45. I've walked by a few F45s. I get the impression the classes are CrossFit + kickboxing with a live DJ… or something like that.

F45 was started in Sydney, Australia, by a guy named Rob Deutsch. Deutsch teamed up with a guy named Adam Gilchrist, who had experience in franchising businesses. By the end of 2014, there were 15 F45s in Sydney alone. Today, there are over 2,800 F45 franchises in 60+ countries.

In 2019, actor/producer/golfer/burger entrepreneur Mark Wahlberg teamed up with a Florida-based venture capital company called FOD Capital to buy a stake in F45. When Mark and FOD invested, F45 was valued at $450 million.

On July 15, 2021, F45 went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol: FXLV.

F45's stock price ended its first day of trading with at $16.20. That officially gave the company a market cap of $1.6 billion. The next year was not kind to F45's stock price. By July 2022, FXLV's stock price had sunk just to $4.00, a 70% decline from its debut IPO price. At that point, F45's market cap was $400 million. As you may have noticed, that was $50 million LESS than the price when Mark invested back in 2019. And even though that was a 70% drop from its IPO price, the next 12 months would be much, much, much worse.

To reiterate, in July 2021, F45's $16 stock price gave the company a market cap of $1.6 billion. By July 2022, the company's $4 stock price meant its market cap sunk to $400 million. By July 2023, F45's stock price had sunk all the way down to… $0.50 per share. At that level, the entire company was worth just $50 million. And it actually got worse. With rumors swirling that the company's viability may not have been… viable… in August 2023 the stock sunk to $0.10. That's a dime per share. At that point, the company's market cap was $10 million. That same month, the company was de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange. Today, it trades on the so-called over-the-counter "OTS" exchange at $0.15 a share, at a market cap of $14.6 million. That's a 99% drop peak to trough.

So, how much of F45 does Mark Wahlberg own? What was his stake worth at its peak, and what's it worth today? These answers were actually somewhat difficult to figure out, keep reading if you'd like the know all the math and research. But! If you're busy and just want a quick answer, here it is:

At his absolute peak, Mark's stake in F45 was worth $136 million. Today, after a 99% decline, his stake is worth $1.2 million.

Keep scrolling for the more complete answer. You know you want to… Btw, here's Mark and Adam Gilchrist on the floor of the NYSE on the day of the IPO to ring the market's opening bell:

(Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for F45 Training)

How much of F45 Does Mark Own?

When you look at a list of F45's largest shareholders, at the very top is Adam Gilchrist with 23 million shares, roughly 24% of the company. As of this writing, Adam's stake is worth $3.5 million. FYI, I do not see F45's original creator, Rob Deutsch, anywhere in the top 20 of company shareholders. He must have been diluted way way down or bought out entirely. Lucky move, in retrospect!

As for Mark, at #8 on the list of the largest shareholders, you'll find the following listing:

#8: Wahlberg, Mark

Total position: 2,194,871 shares (2.32% of total)

At $0.15 a share, Mark's stake would presumably be worth around…

$330 thousand

But, as it turns out, that's not the full picture! My eagle eye noticed that F45's second-largest shareholder is something called:

#2: MWIG LLC

Total position: 22,396,924 (23.64% of total)

What is MWIG LLC? Does "MW" mean "Mark Wahlberg? Yes and no.

Thanks to a little more SEC form digging I was able to learn that MWIG is a "Special Purpose Vehicle" that is co-owned by Mark Wahlberg and FOD Capital. Thanks to another SEC filing, I was able to learn that FOD Capital owns 65% of MWIG and Mark owns 26%. I'm not sure who owns the remaining 9%.

Using this new info, we can compute that Mark owns 26% of those 22,396,924 shares. That's 5,823,200 shares.

At $0.15 a share, 5,823,200 shares are worth…