After numerous appeals and more than a decade of wait, the case of Portland Cement Zambia is finally over. The long battle for ownership of Portland Cement Zambia was established almost a decade ago when Dr. Rajan Mahtani claimed that his factory was illegally taken over from him. The case was registered at the Lusaka High Court after which numerous care proceedings took place. Dr. Rajan Mahtani and his lawyers presented the court with numerous evidences and testimonials. Reports suggest that these evidences and testimonials were more than enough for providing Dr. Rajan Mahtani’s legal ownership over the factory. However, the court took more than a decade to arrive at a final decision. At the same time, the decision from court of appeal judge was controversial. According to the final decision from judge Nkonde of Lusaka High Court judge, Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. To counter this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani approached the Court of Appeal.
Court of Appeal is among the highest civilian courts in Zambia. The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the final judgement on 31st January 2019. According to this judgement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares and is the minority shareholder without any legal ownership over the factory. Based on this decision, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory.
Furthermore, the judge from the Court of Appeal also discarded all forgery related allegations and confirmed that the process of mechanically placing signatures was a common practice is Portland Cement Zambia and based on the evidences, all forgery related allegations were made void. A timeline of three months from the date of the judgement has been provided during which all share sales related activities must be completed.