Two people in total control

Welcome to the most secret of the secrets. To the information that not even the authorities can demand to get. Its name is Interogo, the power-holder of the whole Ikea sphere.

Among its founder statutes paragraph 12 is probably the most sensational point. It stipulates that nobody, repeat nobody, and particularly not any taxation or judicial authorities, are to be given any information whatsoever about the Interogo Foundation.

In plain words:

“These statutes including any later amendments or any other factual or judicial circumstances concerning the said Foundation shall not be imparted to anyone outside of the Foundation, and especially not to the authorities of foreign countries.”

There is an exception: “If the board of the Interogo Foundation unanimously deem it wise for the convenience of its interests to impart any information it may do so.”

Interogo is thus to all intents and purposes a quiet foundation registered in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. The founder statutes are public to whosoever takes the trouble to demand to see them.

But the most interesting information is hidden away in ten pages of small-print appendices that are definitely not public. They contain much formalities, but also very interesting items that speak of who is in control of Inter Ikea and Ikea and how the Ikea idea is to be managed.

And the object:

“To acquire and secure the continuance of the holding company named in the appendix to the statutes and of the companies under this in the whole group. Also to exert the necessary influence needed on the boards in the group.”

However, the appendix also stipulates that the Interogo Foundation may be reconstructed to become an institute or to become a registered administrative company. Such a decision may be made by the two persons that form the board of Interogo:

“If circumstances have changed so much that it is deemed to be in the interests of the Foundation. The purpose itself of the Foundation may, however, not be changed.”

Moreover:

“The Foundation board may not impart any information, reports or accounts should it become aware of any risk that the information will be used untoward to the detriment of the interests of the Foundation.”

These two persons on the Foundation board, independent of the rest of the Kamprad family and of the rest of Ikea, are thus the only ones that have the total formal power over the whole sphere of Ikea.

But the family does have a hold on this absolute power in that it may exert a demand on damages should the two members of the board mismanage their task. This means, of course, that whatever the pair of them decide has probably first been aired in the bosom of the family.

Interogo, thus it seems, is under the total control of the Kamprad family, and its head, Ingvar Kamprad himself, admits this.

But he refuses to define what is meant by the family or who is included in the inner sphere. Whether it be his sons, his grandchildren, his daughter Annika from his first marriage and her children, his wife Margareta or other members of the clan, we do not know.

Neither do we know how decisions are made in the family. Have all the members one vote each? Does anyone have the casting vote?

On the other hand we have discovered that the two members of the Interogo board may be substituted by others.

But when that decision is made it will be on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in Ontario in Canada, where a foundation behind the foundation, Appo Trust, is registered.

Needless to say, of course, the Kamprads control Appo Trust.

Generally speaking Interogo’s statutes are a guarantee that the actual organization will not at any time be an obstacle to change that is needed. Such is the case with the question of how the profits of €9 milliard are to be kept and invested.

Some of the money has been re-invested in the Inter Ikea group while the rest has been placed in different ways for use when needed.

Yet another interesting aspect of the organization is to be noted in paragraph 6 of the statutes. There it is stipulated what benefits the Foundation may deal out.

But how much and two whom is still a closely guarded secret embedded in the appendix.

Even on this account Ingvar Kamprad continues to be silent, but it would seem to mean that, in theory at least, he can be paid personally.

However, he has on repeated occasions said that he personally does not take a penny out of Ikea.

Footnote:

The name Ikea was formed back in the early days by Ingvar Kamprad himself, by taking his own initials and then the initials of the hamlet and the parish he originated from, Emtaryd and Agunnaryd, in Kronoberg county of southern Sweden. He built his first large furniture store in the nearby small town of Älmhult in the 1950’s and today he controls 317 large stores (280 own and 37 franchise) in 26 countries all over the world, except South America and Africa.