Steen & Strøm is a Scandinavian retail

Retail

Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...

 and real estate

Real estate

In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...

 company that owns and operates 52 shopping centres in Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

. In 2006 the shopping centers had 3,300 lessees with total revenue of about NOK

Norwegian krone

The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...

 40 billion.

History

The company was founded in 1797 when Samuel Strøm started a wine shop and general store

General store

A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...

 in Oslo. Emil Steen became a partner in 1856, and the name Steen & Strøm was established. In 1874 the company built the first department store

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

 in Norway, but it was destroyed in a fire in 1929. By 1930 a brand new store had been rebuilt, with architectural inspiration from Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. In 1991 Agora Drift AS took over the management of Steen & Strøm, as well as five other shopping centres and three hotels, and started expanding.

In July 1994 the company was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange

Oslo Stock Exchange

The Oslo Stock Exchange serves as the main market for trading in the shares of Norwegian companies. It opens at 9:00am and closes 5:30pm local time...

, but delisted again in September 2007 after Stein Erik Hagen

Stein Erik Hagen

Stein Erik Hagen is a Norwegian businessman. He is Chairman of the Board of Orkla, where he is a large owner, and holds large ownerships of Steen & Strøm, Jernia and Komplett through his family company Canica...

 had bought out the other owners, at the time Canica

Canica

Canica is a private holding company owned by Stein Erik Hagen and his three children Caroline Marie Hagen, Carl Erik Hagen and Nina Camilla Hagen . The company is the largest owner of Orkla , Jernia , Komplett , Ignis and Steen & Strøm . The company was founded in 1985 to own the RIMI grocery...

 (49,9%), Storebrand

Storebrand

Storebrand is a financial services company in Norway. By volume, the company's main activities are related to life insurance and pension savings. However, the company also has major divisions working on investments, banking and, since 2006, P&C insurance products...

 (12.9%), Orkla

Orkla Group

Orkla Group is a Norwegian industrial conglomerate operating in the Nordic region, Eastern Europe, Asia and the US. The company's main divisions are branded consumer goods, aluminium solutions, materials, associates and financial investments.-Operations:...

 (10.3%), Stein Erik Hagen

Stein Erik Hagen

Stein Erik Hagen is a Norwegian businessman. He is Chairman of the Board of Orkla, where he is a large owner, and holds large ownerships of Steen & Strøm, Jernia and Komplett through his family company Canica...

 (5.9%) and Varner-Gruppen

Varner-Gruppen

Varner-Gruppen AS is the largest actor in the textile retailing trade in Norway with approximately 500 stores around the country, including Bik Bok, Carlings, Cubus, Dressmann, Solo, Urban, Vivikes, Wearhouse and WOW. The stores are located throughout Scandinavia, the Baltic Countries, Germany and...

 (5.5%). In 2008 the company was sold for NOK 21.9 billion to Klépierre

Klépierre

Klépierre is a French real estate investment company.It was founded in 1990 and specializes in commercial real estate. It develops, owns and manages shopping centres in France, Spain and Italy, as well as several other European countries....

 (56.1%) and ABP Pension Fund (43.9%).