Two Canadian pension fund investors have teamed up to acquire the UK cinema chain Vue Entertainment in a private equity deal.
Two Canadian pension fund investors have teamed up to acquire the UK cinema chain Vue Entertainment in a private equity deal.
Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) Private Equity and Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) are purchasing Vue from private equity firm Doughty Hanson for £935 mln (€1 bn).
The transaction is expected to close by August 2013.
Doughty Hanson acquired Vue Entertainment n December 2010 for £450 mln. Since then, Vue has been transformed from the third largest operator in the UK into a pan-European market leader and one of the largest cinema operators in the world. It has doubled the number of cinemas under its ownership from 70 to 146 and the number of screens has been increased from 678 to 1,321.
