Claims By Dr. Rajan Mahtani Finally Approved By Court Of Appeal, Given Majority Shareholding

Dr. Rajan Mahtani fought for the legal takeover of the Portland Cement Zambia factory across two different courts. The first court was Lusaka High Court wherein the case was originally registered. Dr. Rajan Mahtani claimed that his factory was illegally taken over from him and to support this claim, several documents, testimonials and evidences were provided. The judge at the Lusaka High Court was justice Nkonde who gave the final judgement on 31^st January 2019. However, this judgement was extremely controversial as Justice Mwinde announced that Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement.

To counter this judgement, the case was then taken to the Court of Appeal. The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the final decision on 31^st January 2019 after looking into all evidences and testimonials. This judgement was given around nine months after the case was registered at the Court of Appeal, unlike Lusaka High Court which took more than a decade for giving a final decision and a controversial one. As per the final judgement from the Court of Appeal, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments holds 58 percent shares at the factory and is the majority shareholder of the factory. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares at the factory and are the minority shareholders without any legal ownership over the factory. The Court of Appeal justice also confirmed that this decision aligned with the original shareholders agreement established in the year 2007, further establishing the fact that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is owner of the factory.

While giving this judgement, justice Mwinde from the Court of Appeal also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as only shareholders as this decision was misdirected and without any evidence. Furthermore, a timeline of three months from the date of the judgement has been provided for completing all share sales and regulations related activities.