Portland Cement Zambia Case Finally Over, Dr. Rajan Mahtani Announced Legal Owner Of The Factory

Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani is a noted businessman and philanthropist in Zambia. For the past decade, Dr. Rajan Mahtani has been fighting for the legal takeover of his own factory, Portland Cement Zambia. The case was first registered at the Lusaka High Court and when the judge at the Lusaka High Court failed to provide any justice, Dr. Mahtani approached the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal provided its final judgement on 31^st January 2019. According to this decision, Dr. Mahtani is the majority shareholder of Zambezi Portland factory as his company Finsbury Investments holds 58 percent shares. On the other hand, Ventriglias were found to be the minority shareholder of the factory as their entity Ital Terrazzo Limited held just 42 percent shares at the factory. Based on this shareholding pattern, Dr. Rajan Mahtani is automatically the legal owner of the factory. While giving this decision, judge Mwinde from the Court of Appeal also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as the only shareholders as this decision was biased and misdirected.

Apart from the above decision, some shocking revelations were made by the Court of Appeal judge. As per the Court of Appeal judgement, Finsbury Investments paid a sum of K580,000,000 with interest to the Court. This payment was made in compliance with the above judgement and for the commercial registration of the Portland Cement Zambia factory under the Cause No. 2008/HPC/366. This process took place on 6^th February 2019. In a similar manner, Finsbury Investments also claimed a sum of K1 billion with interest from Portland Cement Zambia. This claim was made in connection with the entire payment made for the share capital issued for Portland Cement Zambia. The judge at the Court of Appeal also confirmed this claim as documents of share transfers were shared. The final announcement on this share claims will be provided soon.