Finsbury Investments Announced Majority Shareholder By Court Of Appeal’s Final Decision

Being a developing nation, Zambia has always faced ups and downs in its political and economic environment. The political environment is extremely complicated with corruption across majority of the government organisations. At the same time, the economic conditions are also not that great and majority of the population is suffering from poverty and destitute condition. In such situation, businessmen like Dr. Rajan Mahtani have been working tirelessly towards making the nation a better place for its citizens. However, it is these honest and ethical businessmen who are always suffering due to the corruption ad unethical practices rampant across the nation. Dr. Rajan Mahtani is owner of many successful businesses in Zambia including Portland Cement Zambia, for which he fought at the Lusaka High Court as well as at the Court of Appeal. The judge at the Court of Appeal gave a misdirected judgement by announcing that the Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. As a result, Dr. Rajan Mahtani then approached the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal announced its judgement on 31^st January 2019, nine months after the case was re-launched there. The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde and he announced the decision only after looking into all evidences and testimonials. As per the final judgement of Court of Appeal, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is the majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares at the factory. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares at the factory and are the minority shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. Based on this decision, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory.

The judge from the Court of Appeal also said that the judgement by the Lusaka High Court judge was extremely poor and misdirected as the decision was given without looking into evidences.