Dr. Mahtani Announced Portland Cement Zambia Winner By Court Of Appeal

After more than a decade of wait, Dr. Rajan Mahtani has been given majority shareholding and ownership of Portland Cement Zambia factory. This decision came from Court of Appeal, one of the highest civilian courts in Zambia and the second court to announce the judgement. This decision from Court of Appeal came on 31st January 2019, around nine months after the case was registered there. The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the judgement after looking into all evidences and testimonials. According to this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments holds 58 percent shares at the factory and is the majority shareholder of the factory. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares at the factory and are the minority shareholders without any legal ownership over the factory. This decision from the Court of Appeal aligned with the original shareholders agreement established in the year 2007. Based on this decision, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the actual owner of the factory.

By giving this decision, the judge from the Court of Appeal effectively reversed the judgement from the Lusaka High Court which had earlier announced that Ventriglias were the only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia factory. The judge from the Court of Appeal also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as only shareholders as this decision was misdirected and without any evidences. In terms of the forgery allegations, all such allegations were discarded by the judge. The judge confirmed that the process of mechanically placing signatures was a common practice in Portland Cement Zambia and critical member of the Ventriglia family, Claudio Ventriglia, engaged in similar practice and as such, all forgery related allegations were discarded. With this Court of Appeal judgement, the Portland Cement Zambia factory goes finally to Dr. Rajan Mahtani.

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