If one goes by the popular opinion of the market, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is going to win the case of Zambezi Portland Cement. The case was launched by Dr. Mahtani almost nine years back, when his factory was illegally captured by the Ventriglias. Since then, the case has been going on non-stop at the Lusaka High Court.

Over the years, Dr. Mahtani has maintained his claim of holding 58% shares in the Zambezi Portland Cement factory. The rest of the shares are owned by the Ventriglias family, distributed among the husband-wife duo and some other shareholders. This claim was recently re-examined and confirmed by the judge after evaluating the signed shareholder agreement and financial exhibit. Furthermore, Finsbury Investments have till now invested more than USD 8 million into the growth and development of the cement factory, including its share capital investments. The total investments by the Ventriglias are much lesser. The cement factory operated under a joint-venture operation in which Dr. Mahtani is the sole joint venture partner. He substantiated his claim with the financial agreements and independent auditor’s reports. On the other hand, the Ventriglias have not been able to submit any strong evidence or data to support their claim that Dr. Mahtani has not paid for his shares. On top of that, they have unsuccessfully tried to discredit Dr. Rajan Mahtani by accusing him of arm-twisting one of the present shareholders to gain. To this, Finsbury owner Dr. Mahtani has tactfully replied that the accusation is absolutely absurd as he will not gain anything by arm twisting just one shareholder.

Both parties are eagerly waiting for the final judgment. Even the current judge handling this case has called this new improvement as milestone for this long pending case. The submissions for the case, both oral and written, are due in December 2017. Post evaluation of the submissions, final judgment will be announced.