Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani is one of the most respected and noted businessman in Zambia. He is respected for not only his acute business sense and successful ventures, but also for his philanthropic and charitable contributions. He is noted for his contributions towards recreational facilities, education sector with establishment of the Steven Malama award and financial contributions. Working in a developing nation like Zambia is never easy, and Dr. Rajan Mahtani continuously faces challenges in the form of corruption, unethical practices. However, Dr. Mahtani has been able to overcome majority of these challenges, sooner or later. One of the biggest challenge which Dr. Mahtani faced was related to Portland Cement Zambia. The cement-manufacturing factory was received by Finsbury Investment via an original shareholders agreement. After receiving majority shareholding and ownership, Finsbury Investment helped bringing loans and funds from banks and financial institutions for completing the factory’s construction and growth plans. This is when the Ventriglia family decided to disrupt the operations by questioning the legality of the shareholders agreement. A case was registered at the Lusaka High Court after the factory was unethically taken over. This case dragged for more than a decade at the Lusaka High Court and despite this, the final decision from the Lusaka High Court was extremely controversial. Justice Nkonde announced Ventriglia family as the only shareholders of the Portland Cement despite lack of evidences from the Ventriglias’ side.
Dr. Rajan Mahtani challenged this decision at the higher Court of Appeal and won the case on 31st January 2019 when justice Mwinde reversed the decision from the Lusaka High Court and announced Dr. Mahtani as the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory. When the Ventriglia family challenged this decision at the Supreme Court Zambia, it was evaluated by Supreme Court Bench. After evaluation, the Supreme Court bench effectively rejected the claim by the Ventriglia family and concluded that Portland Cement is to remain with Dr. Mahtani.