Case Of Portland Cement Zambia Closed, Dr. Rajan Mahtani Is The Actual Owner

On 31st January 2019, the final results of the Portland Cement Zambia case was announced. According to this decision, 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 are the minority shareholders without any legal ownership over the factory. By giving this decision, the judge from the Court of Appeal effectively reversed the judgement from the Lusaka High Court. The case was initially registered at the Lusaka High Court and despite sharing all evidences and testimonials, the final judgement from Lusaka High Court judge was extremely controversial. According to this decision, Ventriglias were considered as only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia. 

The Court of Appeal effectively reversed the judgement of the Lusaka High Court. At the same time, the judge from the Court of Appeal discarded all forgery related allegations. It was confirmed that the process of mechanically placing signatures for business transactions was a common practice at Zambezi Portland Cement. It was also found that critical member of the Ventriglias family, Claudio Ventriglias, engaged in similar practice. As a result, all forgery related allegations were considered baseless. The judge from the Court of Appeal also gave a timeline of three months from the date of the judgement during which all share sales processes must be finalised.