OMERS Private Equity and Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) are teaming up to acquire Vue Entertainment for $1.48 billion.
They are buying the theatre chain from London-based private equity firm Doughty Hanson.
Vue’s management team, including the founder and CEO Tim Richards, will retain a substantial equity stake and continue to manage the business.
“We are very pleased to be working with Tim Richards, one of the leading industry executives, and his team at Vue to support the business in its next phase of development,” says Mark Redman, senior managing director and head of Europe with OMERS Private Equity. “We are also delighted to be partnering with a like-minded, similarly sized $70-billion institution such as AIMCo.”
Vue operates multiplex cinemas in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Taiwan.
The transaction is expected to close by late July 2013.