Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani Declared Majority Shareholder And Owner Of Portland Cement Factory

Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani is a noted businessman and philanthropist in Zambia. For the past three decades, Dr. Mahtani has built numerous successful businesses in Zambia, including but not limited to Mahtani Group of Companies, Finsbury Investments and Finance Bank Zambia. He is also the rightful owner of Portland Cement Zambia for which he fought cases across two major courts in Zambia. The case of Portland Cement Zambia started when Dr. Rajan Mahtani registered a case at the Lusaka High Court claiming that his factory was illegally taken over from. After this, several court proceedings took place and despite sharing numerous evidences and testimonials, the judge at the Lusaka High Court took more than a decade to announce the final results. The final decision from the Lusaka High Court came during May, 2018 and was announced by justice Nkonde. According to this decision, Ventriglias were announced as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. It was clear that this decision was misdirected and as a result, Dr. Rajan Mahtani took the right step by approaching the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal is one of the highest-level civilian courts in Zambia. The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the final judgement on 31st January 2019 after looking into all evidences and testimonials. According to this judgement, 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 is the minority shareholder without any legal ownership over the factory. This decision from the Court of Appeal aligns 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 Portland Cement Zambia factory.