Pro Kapital, BDG to bring movie chain to the Baltics

  • 2000-07-13
TALLINN (BNS) - Pro Kapital and the BDG entertainment firm will invest more than 300 million kroons ($18.3 million) into a multiplex movie chain in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius with a payoff period of seven to nine years.

The first movie house with 10 halls and an overall floor area of 4,000 square meters will be completed in August 2001 in the Kristiine shopping center in Tallinn, BDG board member Peeter Rebane said.

Manager of the new movie houses will be AS Hansakinod, a subsidiary of BDG and Ernesto Preatoni's investment company, with ownership of the subsidiary equally divided between the two.

From the real estate development aspect, the project will be financed by Pro Kapital Group and BDG, which regards itself as the Baltic countries' biggest entertainment group.

After the movie complex in the Kristiine Center, the second multiplex movie house will be built in the VEF shopping center to be opened in 2002 in Riga. The Vilnius entertainment center will be completed in 2003, Rebane said.

The joint name of the multiplex movie houses will be decided in a public competition, with the winner to receive a free ticket for life.

Name suggestions can be submitted by mail, the Internet or left in the Kristiine Center, BDG marketing director Aigi Vahing said.

Vahing said the name will be given also to the houses to be erected under the same project in Riga and Vilnius.

"The name must be international and easy to pronounce, so names such as Jaa-aar and Massachusetts won't do," she said.

The other condition is novelty, to avoid possible confusion due to already existing businesses such as the Olympia Hotel or the Metropole cafe.

The person whose name is selected will be awarded free entry for life into the Tallinn multiplex movie house.