A Canadian consortium made up of Omers Private Equity (OPE) and Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) have signed a deal to acquire one of Britain's biggest cinema chains, Vue Entertainment, in a deal worth £935m (CA$1.48bn, US$1.45m, €1bn).

OPE and AIMCo will pay more than double the £450m (CA$716m, US$700m, €527m) that seller Doughty Hanson paid for the Vue chain less than three years ago.

Vue's management team, led by founder and chief executive Tim Richards, are reinvesting following completion of the deal to retain a substantial stake and continue to run operations, with plans not only to expand across Europe with more cinemas, but to start making films as well as become a distributor for smaller British movies.

Since the original purchase by Doughty Hanson, the number of cinemas under Vue ownership has more than doubled from 70 to 146, with the latest addition being Polish number two operator Multikino, purchased last month for €100m (£85m, US$132m). Last year the firm bought Apollo Cinemas and Germany's second-largest operator, CinemaxX.