SF Kino Acquires 50 Percent of CAPA Kinoreklame

Norway's cinema chain SF Kino has acquired a 50 percent share of digital advertising company CAPA Kinoreklame AS. The other 50 percent is owned by Kinovasjon Norway AS, which acquired CAPA Kinoreklame earlier this fall from Clear Channel Norway.

The ownership allows SF Kino to tighten its the two businesses Bergen Kino AS and Trondheim Kino AS, through a very concrete and operational theater collaboration. SF Kino already owns 49 percent of the cinemas in Stavanger/Sandnes, which are also shareholders in Kinovasjon Norway AS.

With the establishment of SF Kino's new Festningen Kino - which will be Norway's largest with nine screens at 1,800 seats - and the existing SF Kino divisions in Sandvika and Lillestrøm, SF Kino will be on its way to becoming a market leading player in the Oslo area. 

The new ownership ensures that the CAPA retain its leading role in cinema advertising in the Norwegian market. "We are in place in all major cities today, and so the new ownership will ensure that we continue to do so in the future," says Carl Martin Klingberg, Managing Director of CAPA Cinema Advertising AS. "SF Media in Sweden and CAPA in Norway have always cooperated well, and the new ownership will strengthen this cooperation and also allow the parties to share a number of resources that will improve the value of our services for our customers."

Managing Director of Bergen Kino AS and Chairman of Kinovasjon Norway AS Elisabeth Halvorsen says she is looking forward to working with SF. "CAPA has been a leader in innovation and development in cinema advertising, both in Norway and internationally over the past 20 years, and a co-ownership with SF Cinema will help to strengthen this position for the benefit of advertisers, investors, the public and the cooperating cinemas," she says.

Managing Director Ivar Halstvedt in SF Cinema AS is looking forward the cooperation. SF Cinema is a long-term and industrial player in the Norwegian market and build their business stone by stone in Norway, says Ivar Halstvedt, managing director of SF Kino AS. "Our vision in Norway is to build healthy and sustainable cinema operations, often in collaboration with the existing operators who share our values, and then the advertising business is a natural part of our overall strategy. Instead of starting something yourself and then splitting the market andmaking it less attractive and accessible to customers, it is much more profitable and better business to join forces with market CAPA," says lvar Halstvedt.