Why Ballantyne Strong's Stock Is Trading Higher Today

A holding company of assets and investments in publicly traded companies is trading higher after one of its investments announced a major purchase that could make it a top 10 company in its respective market.

What Happened: Ballantyne Strong BTN shares were moving higher after one of its investments, GreenFirst Forest Products ICLTF, announced an acquisition of forest and paper product assets in Ontario and Quebec from Rayonier Advanced Materials RYAM.

GreenFirst Forest is paying a total of $214 million for the assets and inventory. The acquisition will be financed via 85% cash and 15% shares of GreenFirst.

Ballantyne owns around seven million shares of GreenFirst, according to non-executive chair Kyle Cerminara.

Why It’s Important: The acquisition announced by Green First is expected to make the company a top 10 lumber producer in Canada.

GreenFirst was a Canadian shell company that Cerminara transformed into a forest products company with the initial purchase of a sawmill in Ontario.

Ballantyne has investments in Firefly, which connects cities with dynamic smart media platforms, GreenFirst Forest Products and FG Financial Group FGF. FG Financial allocates capital to several projects including SPACs. FG Financial funded $8.6 million towards FG New America Acquisition Corp FGNA, which announced a SPAC merger with OppFi.

In the last 12 months, Ballantyne Strong has sold two of its businesses and is exploring strategic alternatives for its cinema and entertainment business.

BTN Price Action: Shares of Ballantyne Strong are up 11% to $3.09 on Monday.