On 31st January 2019, the Court of Appeal made a final judgement on the Zambezi Portland Cement. As per the judgement, the decision made by the Lusaka High Court during May 2018 was effectively reversed and the majority shareholding was given to the real and legal owner of the factory, Dr. Rajan Mahtani.
The case of Zambezi Portland Cement is more than ten years old. The case was first registered by Dr. Rajan Mahtani after the factory was illegally taken over from him. Since then, he has presented several evidences and testimonials to prove his legal worth over the factory. However, numerous shortcomings of the court resulted in the final judgement which was against Dr. Rajan Mahtani’s claims. As such, an appeal was made to the ‘Court of Appeal’. The judgement at the Court of Appeal was given by Justice Mwinde Siavwapa who announced that it was wrong for the High Court Judge Nkonde to announce that Ventriglias were majority shareholders of Portland Cement Zambia; when in reality the statement was entirely false.
As per the latest judgement by the Court of Appeal, Finsbury Investments limited is majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, the Ventriglia family hold minority shareholding with 42 percent shares. As such, Finsbury Investments becomes the legal owner of the factory. Finsbury Investments is owned by Dr. Rajan Mahtani who is also the owner of several other successful establishments in Zambia including Finance Bank Zambia and Mahtani Group of Companies.
The decision made by the Court of Appeal regarding the shareholding pattern is aligned with the original shareholders agreement established between the same parties in the year 2007. The judge also announced that any allegations of forgery were invalid as the practice of mechanically placing signatures are common in Zambia during contractual agreements and the Ventriglia family members also engaged in similar practices.