Majority Shareholding Goes To Finsbury Investments, Portland Cement Zambia Case Closed

The Portland Cement Zambia case has been finally closed. The case started more than a decade ago when it was registered at the Lusaka High Court by none other than Dr. Rajan Mahtani. Dr. Mahtani had claimed the legal and actual ownership of Portland Cement Zambia and also claimed that the factory was unethically and forcefully taken away from him. Despite having all evidences, facts and testimonials for re-claiming his factory, the Lusaka High Court dragged the case for more than a decade. Major reasons attributing to this long pendency can be lack of proper ethical standings at the court, regular transfers of judges leading to case starting again from the scratch, unethical acts from the opponents such as not attending case hearing or bribing the department and many more. As a result of these challenges, it took more than a decade to make a final announcement to the case. However, even this announcement was controversial. The judge at the Lusaka High Court giving the final judgement was justice Nkonde who announced that Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia.

After this, the second and most important phase of the case started. Dr. Rajan Mahtani took the case to the Court of Appeal, one of the highest civilian courts in Zambia. The judge who took the case was justice Mwinde and he gave the final decision on 31st January 2019, around nine months after the re-appeal. Unlike the previous judges, justice Mwnde looked into all evidences and testimonials and only after complete checking, shared the final results. As per this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the actual owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory as he owns 58 percent shares of the factory. The Ventriglias, on the other hand, hold just 42 percent shares at the factory and are the minority shareholders without any legal ownership. Based on this decision from the Court of Appeal judge, it is clearly established that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the actual owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory.

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