OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Ballantyne Strong, Inc. (NYSE MKT: BTN), a holding company with diverse business activities focused on serving the cinema, retail, financial and government markets, announces that it has acquired indirect ownership of an aggregate of 465,500 common shares ("Shares") of Itasca Capital Ltd. (TSX-V: ICL; OTCQB: KBXMF) ("Itasca") through open market purchases on the TSX-V market. This announcement is made by Ballantyne Strong to comply with certain legal requirements under Canadian securities legislation respecting its ownership of securities of Itasca.

The Shares were acquired by Strong/MDI Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ballantyne Strong, and having a head office address at 1440 Rue Raoul Charette, Joliette, Quebec, J6E 8S7.

As a result of the acquisition of the Shares, Ballantyne Strong now, indirectly, beneficially owns and exercises control over an aggregate of 6,993,000 Shares, representing approximately 32.1 % of the 21,810,626 issued and outstanding common shares of Itasca (as disclosed in Itasca’s latest quarterly filing for the period ending June 30, 2016). Ballantyne Strong paid an average of CAD $0.675 per Share for the recently acquired Shares that are subject to this news release for total consideration of CAD $314,129.

On June 6, 2016, Itasca completed an issuer bid and acquired 25,820,761 common shares for cancellation. As a result of the cancellation of 25,820,761 common shares, Itasca’s issued and outstanding common share capital was reduced from 45,481,387 (as disclosed in Itasca’s Issuer Bid Circular dated April 29, 2016) to 21,810,626 common shares as of June 30, 2016 (as disclosed in Itasca’s Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the period ending June 30, 2016 dated as of August 26, 2016). As a result, as of May 30, 2016, Ballantyne Strong had ownership and control over Common Shares representing approximately 14% of the then outstanding shares, and as of June 6, 2016 representing approximately 29.9% of the outstanding shares.

Ballantyne Strong acquired the Shares for strategic purposes and may, depending on market and other conditions, increase or decrease beneficial ownership, control or discretion over, shares or other securities of Itasca through market transactions, private agreements or otherwise.

The head office of Itasca is located at Suite 2900, 595 Burrard Street, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Strong/MDI Inc. will file with the Canadian regulators within the prescribed period an early warning report providing details on the acquisition. The report will be available on SEDAR. In addition, a copy of the report may be obtained by contacting Elise Stejskal at the below number.

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