Ingimar

"A lot of corners were cut and the chaotic nature of the joint venture meant that it was effectively stillborn. The Russians, who owned 35% of the venture, contributed the land and buildings, and Ingimar and Bernard (who had a 65% stake) were supposed to contribute the old Icelandic bottling machinery and some start-up funds. Magnus, my father and I were supposed to be running the venture for the stakeholders who had contributed the machinery and the factory. We had no stake in the venture, but the hope – and promise – of earning equity if the business prospered. However, after the equipment arrived and was commissioned, we discovered that the BVI guys had tricked our Russian partners and Russian customs. Instead of contributing the machinery in return for share capital and thereby avoiding customs duties and taxes as start-ups could legally do, the manifest listed just some items of furniture and supplies. The BVI guys set up another offshore company that ‘owned’ the machinery to take leasing payments from the Russian factory’s monthly cash flow. They had tried to get UK investors for the joint venture and failed. They did put in a small amount of money but then tried to extract funds, as they did not believe the venture would ever become profitable – obviously influenced by their failure to get any investors, which was probably because they had no track record as principals in any deals, let alone risky emerging-market deals."

"Ingimar, who had been the original venture’s chairman, was no longer with the company, but when he saw that the new company was making money he wanted to continue this three-way fight, which dragged on for a long time. He went to court saying that the registration of the share transfer between my father and him was done incorrectly. Then he sued, saying that he had never signed the documents. And in a third case he argued that although he had signed the documents, he had not had power of attorney. He threw in one technicality after another, often bizarrely contradicting each other.…"

"A lot of corners were cut and the chaotic nature of the joint venture meant that it was effectively stillborn. The Russians, who owned 35 per cent of the venture, contributed the land and buildings, and Ingimar and Bernard (who had a 65 per cent stake) were supposed to contribute the old Icelandic bottling machinery and some start-up funds. Magnus, my father and I were supposed to be running the venture for the stakeholders who had contributed the machinery and the factory. We had no stake in the venture, but the hope – and promise – of earning equity if the business prospered. However, after the equipment arrived and was commissioned, we discovered that the BVI guys had tricked our Russian partners and Russian customs. Instead of contributing the machinery in return for share capital and thereby avoiding customs duties and taxes as start-ups could legally do, the manifest listed just some items of furniture and supplies. The BVI guys set up another offshore company that ‘owned’ the machinery to take leasing payments from the Russian factory’s monthly cash flow. They had tried to get UK investors for the joint venture and failed. They did put in a small amount of money but then tried to extract funds, as they did not believe the venture would ever become profitable – obviously influenced by their failure to get any investors, which was probably because they had no track record as principals in any deals, let alone risky emerging-market deals."

"This venture transformed the business but was not without its problems. Although the Baltic Bottling Plant had nothing to do with the new company, the fact that it was doing well and had the right formula for success enraged the BVI guys, Ingimar and Bernard, who started challenging us in court and asking for settlements. We therefore had both mobsters and ex-partners looking for a cut in the business in exchange for doing nothing, but having a nuisance value to be bought off. I have since come up against this kind of thing on many occasions."