Majority Shareholding Of Portland Cement Zambia Goes To Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani

On 31st January 2019, a critical announcement was made for the Portland Cement Zambia case. The case can be easily regarded as one of the longest pending high-profile corporate cases in Zambia. The case of Portland Cement Zambia was originally established at the Lusaka High Court by Dr. Rajan Mahtani claiming that his factory was illegally taken over from him. After this, Dr. Mahtani shared numerous evidences, testimonials and factual data to prove his claim. However, various shortcomings of the court itself dragged the case to more than a decade. It is worth noting here that before announcing the final decision which was given during the month of May, 2018, the judge at the Lusaka High Court made another announcement. According to this announcement, all case proceedings were closed and the judge confirmed that final decision will be given based on the available evidences in written and oral format. This was a significant breakthrough for Dr. Rajan Mahtani as he had all evidences and testimonials to prove his worthy claim. However, the final decision which came from justice Nkonde was extremely controversial. According to this decision, Ventriglias were announced as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement.

To counter this misdirected decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani the approached the Court of Appeal. The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the final judgement on 31st January 2019. According to this decision, 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. Based on this decision, it is clearly established that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the actual owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory.