The Court of Appeal announced final decision on Portland Cement Zambia factory on 31st January 2019. This decision was announced nine months after the case was registered there by Dr. Rajan Mahtani. The case, which was originally launched at the Lusaka High Court, took more than ten years to announce its final decision. However, the final decision announced was extremely controversial as the judge from the Court of Appeal announced that Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement factory. This decision was given without looking into evidences or factual details. As a result, Dr. Rajan Mahtani was left with no choice but to approach the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal announced its final judgement on 31st January 2019. According to this judgement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds only 42 percent shares at the factory. Thus, Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the majority shareholder and legal owner of the Zambezi Portland Cement factory and the Ventriglias are only minority shareholders.
During this judgement, the Court of Appeal judge further shared numerous critical details which were almost missed or ignored by previous judges. Pursuant to Court of Appeal judgement, Finsbury Investment paid a sum of K580,000,000 with interest to the court. This investment was paid for Commercial Registration of the Portland Cement Zambia factory and was done on 6th February 2019 in compliance with the judgement. At the same time, Finsbury Investments has also claimed a sum of K1 Billion with interest against entire share capital issued for Zambezi Portland Cement. This share capital transfer was further confirmed with financial evidences of share transfers conducted in January 2007 and December 2006. This share capital transfer further confirmed the 58 percent shareholding of Dr. Rajan Mahtani of Portland Cement Zambia and his legal ownership over the factory.