Results For The Portland Cement Zambia Case At The Court Of Appeal Is Out

The results for the case of Zambezi Portland is out and with this result, various revelations have been established. Zambezi Portland Cement is a cement-manufacturing factory which was contested by two major business parties in Zambia for more than a decade. These included Dr. Rajan Mahtani, a noted industrialist and businessman and the other contender were the Ventriglia family. During the case proceedings which continued for a decade, several important documents and evidences were shared by Dr. Rajan Mahtani to prove his legal claim. However, all these evidences were of no use as the final decision was given against him. After which, an appeal was placed at the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal announced its final judgement on 31^st January 2019. As per this judgment, Dr. Rajan Mahtani is majority shareholder at the Zambezi Portland Cement. This judgement effectively reverses the judgment given by the Lusaka High Court Judge Justice Nkonde. The judgment at the Court of Appeal took place during the early morning session and lasted for around 1.5 hours. The judge overseeing the case on behalf of the Court of Appeal was Justice Mwinde. While announcing the judgement, Justice Mwinde also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring the Ventriglias as majority shareholder without having any strong evidence. The Judgment by the Lusaka High Court judge was considered against the law and misdirected and was effectively reversed.

As per the new judgement, Finsbury Investments which is owned by Dr. Rajan Mahtani has 58 percent shares at the Zambezi Portland and the Ventriglias own 42 percent shares at the factory. This shareholding pattern is similar to the original shareholders agreement established in the year 2007. As such, the only majority shareholder is Finsbury Investment and therefore the rightful owner of the factory. The court has also given a timeline of three months from the date of judgment to finalise and reprocess the sale of the shares.