After more than ten years, the legal fight for Portland Cement Zambia is over. This legal battle started when Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani approached the Lusaka High Court after claiming that his factory, Portland Cement Zambia, was illegally taken over from him. Since then, several court proceedings took place, numerous evidences and testimonials were shared and the judges got changed several times. Despite these long lists of evidences and an extended period at the Court, there was no decision on the case at all. The final judgement for the case came from justice Nkonde during the month of May 2018. However, when the final decision came it surprised everyone. According to this final decision, Ventriglias were given majority shareholding of the Portland Cement Zambia limited.
To counter this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani then took the case to the Court of Appeal. The judge who reviewed the case at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde, a notable judge. According to the final judgement from the Court of Appeal which was given on 31st January 2019, the judgement from the Lusaka High Court was misdirected and was effectively reversed. The judge at the Court of Appeal announced that Dr. Rajan Mahtani was majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, Ventriglias were the minority shareholders with only 42 percent shares at the factory. Based on this decision, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the actual owner of the factory. It should be noted here that the shareholding for Portland Cement Zambia belonged to Finsbury Investments which is a company owned by Dr. Rajan Mahtani. While giving the judgement, justice Mwinde also said that this decision aligned with the original shareholders agreement established in the year 2007.
All forgery related allegations were discarded by the judge and a timeline of three months from the date of the judgement was given for completing all share sales and regulation related activities.
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