Dr. Rajan Mahtani is a noted businessman in Zambia with many successful business ventures. Some of his top business ventures have been Mahtani Group of Companies, Finance Bank Zambia and Finsbury Investments. He has also claimed to be the owner of the Portland Cement Zambia cement factory which was initially registered at the Lusaka High Court. After around 10 years of various court proceedings, the judge from the Lusaka High Court made final announcement on the case. However, this announcement was extremely controversial as the judge announced that Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. Since this judgement did not provide the right justice, Dr. Rajan Mahtani rightfully approached the Court of Appeal.
The judge from the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who announced the judgement on Portland Cement Zambia on 31st January 2019 during the morning hours. As per this judgement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is the majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, the Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited is the minority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with only 42 percent shares. As per this shareholding pattern, Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the legal and real owner of the Zambezi Portland Cement factory. This decision given by the Court of Appeal judge also aligns with the original shareholders agreement which was established in the year 2007.
While giving the judgement, Justice Mwinde from the Court of Appeal also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as the only shareholders without evidence or proof. Furthermore, the judge discarded all forgery related allegations as the practice of mechanically placing signatures for business transactions was considered to be common in Zambezi Portland Cement. A timeline of three months has been given to both parties for completion of the share regularization process.