On 31st January 2019, the Portland Cement Zambia case was finally closed. The case closure was done by justice Mwinde from the Court of Appeal, the second court where the case was heard. It should be noted here that the first court where the case was registered was Lusaka High Court. The case dragged in the court for more than a decade and the final decision was announced by justice Nkonde during the month of May, 2018. However, the final decision was controversial with justice Nkonde announcing Ventriglias as only shareholders. It was after this controversial case judgement which prompted Dr. Rajan Mahtani to take the case up with the higher Court of Appeal.
The higher Court of Appeal gave its final decision on 31st January 2019. This decision was given after all evidences, testimonials and other reports were evaluated thoroughly. One big difference between the two courts is this difference in transparency. While the same evidences, testimonials and other details were provided to the Lusaka High Court justice too, lack of transparency, corruption and unethical practices resulted in the court ignoring these critical evidences and giving an extremely controversial decision panned by the general citizens.
However, Dr. Rajan Mahtani is thankful that he did not suffer the same fate at Court of Appeal too. After evaluation of presented evidences, testimonials as well as all other written and oral representations, the final statement declared Dr. Rajan Mahtani as majority owner of the factory. This statement was made based on the fact that Dr. Mahtani holds ownership of Finsbury Investments which in turn holds majority shareholding of Portland Cement with 58 percent shares.
On the other hand, Ventriglias were found to be just minority shareholders as their entity, Ital Terrazzo Limited was allotted just 42 percent Portland Cement shares during the original agreement. Based on this transparent judgement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the only legal owner of the factory.