The case of Portland Cement Zambia is peculiar. The case ran from courts to courts and from judge to judge. Despite sharing numerous evidences, testimonials and factual data, none of the judges or courts was to provide justice. The case was first taken to Lusaka High Court by Dr. Rajan Mahtani, where it went pending for ten years. Despite this long pendency, the final decision was controversial as the Ventriglias were considered as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. To counter this, Dr. Rajan Mahtani then approached the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal provided its final judgment on 31st January 2019 and by giving this judgment, effectively reversed the decision by Lusaka High Court judge. According to this judgment, Dr. Rajan Mahtani who owns the Finsbury Investments company is a majority shareholder of the cement manufacturing factory with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, the Ventriglias who own Ital Terrazzo Limited hold 42 percent shares and are only minority shareholders. Based on this shareholding pattern, Dr. Rajan Mahtani has been established as legal owner of the factory.
While giving the judgment, justice Mwinde from the Court of Appeal also shared numerous critical information that was otherwise left by previous judges. From the case analysis, it was found that Finsbury Investments paid a sum of K580,000,000 to the court which was in compliance with the judgment and was intended for commercial registry of the factory. This incident occurred on 6th February 2019. At the same time, Finsbury Investments have claimed a sum of K1billion with interests for ensure share capital issues for the Zambezi Portland Cement. This investment in the shares of ZPC by Finsbury was further confirmed by the share transfer documents for the year 2007 and 2006. These share transfer documents were validated by the judge who also indicated majority shareholding of the Finsbury Investments.