Court of Appeal Announced Winner Of Zambezi Portland Case, Finsbury Majority Shareholder

On 31^st January 2019, the Court of Appeal announced a historic judgment. The decision was on Zambezi Portland Cement, a cement manufacturing plan which was contested at several courts in Zambia for the past ten years. As per the decision by the Court of Appeal, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is the majority shareholder of Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, Ventriglias who own Ital Terrazzo Limited hold 42 percent shares at the factory and are minority shareholders. This means Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the majority shareholder and thus, the legal owner of the Zambezi Portland Cement factory.

With respect to forgery allegations, the judge from the Court of Appeal dismissed all allegations and confirmed that the process of mechanical placement of signatures was actually an established and widespread practice across Zambezi Portland Cement. In fact, the judge also said that critical member of the Ventriglia family, Claudio Ventriglia, engaged in similar practice when engaging in business transactions. As such, the allegations were discarded. Furthermore, the Court of Appeal also said that all parties will need to regularize with the process of share selling and complete the procedure within three months from the judgment date.

In a similar manner, the Court of Appeal shared numerous details regarding the Zambezi Portland Cement case. According to these details, Finsbury Investments has paid a sum of K 580,000,000 with interest to the court in compliance with the judgment. This payment was made for commercial registration of the Zambezi Portland Cement. At the same time, Finsbury Investments has also claimed a sum of K1 billion with interest on the Zambezi Portland factory. This payment has been made against the entire share capital issues of Zambezi Portland Cement. This share transfers were further confirmed by the Court of Appeal with details of share transfers occurring during December 2006 & January 2007. These details further confirm the fact that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the legal owner of the Zambezi Portland Cement factory.