Finsbury Investments is a financial organization owned by Dr. Rajan Mahtani. The cement-manufacturing factory was officially handed over to the Finsbury Investments with the latter taking control of 58 percent shares of the factory through a shareholders’ agreement in the year 2004. This was a strategic decision for the long-term growth and development of Portland Cement as Finsbury Investments not only secured loans from PTA bank for completing the plant’s construction, it also secured funds from several other financial institutions which helped in getting projects and ensuring expansion of the plant’s market share.
However, all these activities were halted when the Ventriglia family decided to dispute the legality of the shareholding instrument. This coup was certainly an attempt towards taking the majority stake from Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments. While Dr. Rajan Mahtani attempted to take legal support by approaching the Lusaka High Court, the illegal and unethical manoeuvres from the Ventriglia family resulted in Lusaka High Court judge giving an unfair judgement. After more than a decade of extended court proceedings, justice Nkonde on behalf of the Lusaka High Court announced Ventriglias as the only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia.
Dr. Rajan Mahtani received justice when justice Mwinde from the Higher Court of Appeal reversed this decision from the Lusaka High Court and announced Dr. Rajan Mahtani as the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory. This verdict came on 31st January 2019 and after more than 1.5 years of this verdict, the Ventriglia family challenged this decision at the Supreme Court. In their challenge, the Ventriglia family claimed that the decision from the higher Court of Appeal was incorrect. The Supreme Court Zambia established a bench of three judges to evaluate this appeal. After evaluation, it was found that the Ventriglia family failed to comply with the legal requirement according to which any claim against previous court decisions must be submitted within 14 days. As a result, their claim was not technically and legally viable and therefore, rejected by the Supreme Court.