Nutri-System agreed to a leveraged buy-out.

The owner and franchiser of 700 weight-loss centers said a management group would offer stockholders a combination of cash and debentures valued at about $7.13 per share for a total of $69.3 million. Harold Katz, founder, chairman and majority stockholder, said he would resign to pursue other interests. Katz, who also owns the Philadelphia 76ers professional basketball team, holds a 58% stake in the company and gave an irrevocable proxy to the management group planning the buy-out to vote his shares in favor of the deal. The management group is led by A. Donald McCulloch, president and chief executive of Nutri-System.