After A Decade Of Court Struggle, Dr. Mahtani Given Legal Ownership Of Zambezi Portland Cement
On 31st January 2019, the long-pending case of Portland Cement Zambia was finally completed. This case was initially launched at the Lusaka High Court by Dr. Rajan Mahtani a noted businessman and philanthropist after he claimed that his factory was illegally taken over. The case went from judges to judges at the court and justice Nkonde gave the final decision in the month of May, 2018. However, this decision was extremely controversial as the judge announced Ventriglias as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. After this misdirected judgement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani approached the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal is one of the highest court systems in Zambia. The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the 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 at the factory. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital-Terrazzo Limited holds 42 percent shares and is the minority shareholder without any legal ownership over the factory. The judge also confirmed that this shareholding pattern aligned with the original shareholders agreement which was established in the year 2007. Based on this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani is clearly the legal owner of the factory.
Furthermore, the judge at the Court of Appeal also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement as this decision was against the interests of the public policies. A timeline of three months from the date of the judgement has been given by the judge during which all share sales related activities must be completed.
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