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Bjørn Erik Reinseth and his former employer Foinco disagree on the bonus agreement he had. The Oslo District Court has now concluded: the company must pay.
Bjørn Erik Reinseth. Now he is the head of the Research Park. Archive.
Dan P. Neegaard
Published:
Bjørn Erik Reinseth was fired last summer after six years as a director of investment company Foinco. Just a few months later, Foinco sold Norstat shares for a profit of more than NOK 300 million.
Reinseth thought he should have a bonus on the sale. He was entitled to 10 percent of the capital gain, he said. However, the agreement set a limit of NOK 20 million.
Foinco thought he was not entitled to the bonus.
Reinseth is now director of the Research Park, which is owned by the University of Oslo and Siva.
Referred to old emails
According to the company, the bonus agreement applied to the entire investment portfolio and not to individual companies. The portfolio was also made up of the companies Zentuvo and Allierogruppen. These had had a weak development. The old company went bankrupt in 2018.
Portfolio development was weaker than the agreed profit threshold, Foinco believed. The total values should have increased by at least 8 percent, they thought.
Reinseth did not agree with this, so he sued the company and demanded 20 million crowns.
The parties completely disagree on how the bonus agreement should be interpreted.
Attorney Vidar Riksfjord assisted Reinseth in the case. In court, they filed emails between Foinco and Reinseth. The agreement is described in detail here. Reinseth believes the emails state that the bonus should be paid for individual sales, regardless of the rest of the portfolio.
Verdict: not very professional
The Oslo District Court supports Reinseth. In a recent ruling by the Oslo District Court, Foinco is ordered to pay the former boss NOK 20 million.
The board appears irresponsible and unprofessional in handling the bond, the court believes.
Foinco also discusses with previous emails and meetings about the bonus deal. They believe the emails support their interpretation.
Here, however, they do not prevail.
Family party
Anne Birgitte Fossum is president of the board of Foinco. She has not responded to our inquiries. Their lawyer Jan Fougner says they will decide soon whether to appeal.
“Foinco is disappointed with the result,” he wrote in an SMS.
Reinseth has not responded to our inquiries. His lawyer writes in an SMS that they do not want to comment on the case.
Last week, Reinseth started a new job. He is employed as head of the Research Park. Reinseth has previously worked at mobile phone companies Netcom and Sense, as well as family investment companies Ferd and Foinco. He has also worked at the Cern research center.
Foinco is located on Bygdøy Avenue in Oslo. The company was founded by Bernt Julius Fossum in 1989. It is now owned by heirs and their families.
In 2019, the company made a return of NOK 232 million.
